A 42-year-old San Antonio man has been found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the 2016 death of a 20-year-old Tyler woman.

The Smith County jury reached the verdict in less than an hour Thursday in the case against James Arthur Fulton. They also determined Fulton used a deadly weapon, his Dodge Ram pickup, to commit the crime.

Fulton’s trial began Monday in the 241st District Court. The jury heard testimony through Wednesday from the state’s witnesses. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham rested the state’s case after the victim’s mother, Jennifer Whittmore, took the witness stand. Whittmore fought through tears as she identified her daughter, Haile Dawn Beasley, to the jury.

The state’s expert witnesses were able to convince the jury that many of the myths surrounding alcohol consumption are false.

They provided detailed descriptions of how a person’s body metabolizes alcohol

and the effect it has on tasks like driving that require undivided attention.

The defense presented its case Thursday, calling the defendant’s father-inlaw who testified that he didn’t believe Fulton was impaired or intoxicated at the time. Other witnesses were considered, but the court found their testimony irrelevant to the case.

Fulton invoked his Fifth Amendment right and did not testify.

Police body camera footage and car camera footage showed Fulton claiming he saw a deer, followed it with his eyes and began rolling in his vehicle.

The defense rested its case Thursday shortly before 11 a.m.

Smith County district attorney’s prosecutor James Jeff Bullock presented closing arguments. His statement focused on Fulton’s day of drinking and golfing at The Cascades followed by the consumption of more than 42 ounces of beer in less than an hour and a half at a Tyler restaurant before getting into his pickup and driving back to San Antonio.

Defense attorney James Huggler Jr. argued that the crash was a five-second event that was tragic and an accident, but not criminally negligent homicide.

Fulton was traveling west on Grande Boulevard in Tyler about 9:40 p.m. May 14, 2016, when he claimed to see the deer that caused him to drive his Dodge Ram pickup across the turn lane into the eastbound lanes and strike Beasley’s Ford Focus head-on. Beasley was killed.

Fulton’s bond of $15,000 was deemed to be insufficient. It was raised to $50,000. Fulton was handcuffed and taken to the Smith County Jail. Court will reconvene Friday for the sentencing phase.

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