The 35-year-old recently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault for chasing down a woman who honked at him, striking her in the face, and running over and killing her boyfriend as he tried to record the burst of violence in 2020.
Lawrence is now serving a 25-year sentence in the state prison complex in Buckeye. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Chuck Whitehead sentenced Lawrence to 25 years for the second-degree murder charge and two years for the aggravated assault charge. Whitehead allowed the sentences to be served at the same time and credited Lawrence for the 1,245 days he spent in jail since he was arrested on Sept. 30, 2020. He's expected to be released in September 2045, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.
Whitehead sentenced Lawrence on Feb. 26. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell touted the conviction and sentence in a press release on Tuesday.
“This defendant’s out-of-control behavior cost the life of an innocent victim,” Mitchell said. “Road rage is a criminal offense that happens all too often in our state.”
Lawrence, triggered by the horn honking, unleashed a wave of violence on Carolyn Bui and her boyfriend, James William Ackerman Jr., as they were driving near Southern Avenue and Alma School Road in Mesa on Jan. 11, 2020.
Here’s how the incident unfolded, according to prosecutors:
Bui, who was driving, was preparing to make a left turn. Lawrence veered into Bui’s lane, and she honked. Lawrence then followed Bui’s vehicle to her apartment complex and spun donuts in the parking lot. He got out of his vehicle and punched Bui in the face. As Ackerman attempted to record Lawrence’s license plate, he chased Ackerman down with his truck, striking and killing him.
A recent study by FINN showed that Arizona tops the country for road rage and confrontational drivers.
FINN
Arizona’s road rage problem, ranked
The sentencing in the murder and assault is the latest example of road rage violence that prompted FINN, a car subscription service, to label Arizona as the worst state for both road rage and confrontational drivers.A recent study from FINN put Arizona’s road rage score at 8 out of 10, the highest in the U.S. The state also came out on top for confrontational drivers.
“A huge 81% of drivers in Arizona have been yelled at, insulted or threatened when driving,” according to the report. “As well as this, a shocking 22.5% of drivers in the state have been forced off the road.”
Arizona ranked ahead of Montana, South Carolina, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama for road rage.
The best state to avoid road rage? Finn said Minnesota, where drivers encounter the least aggressive driving in the country. There’s something to be said for Minnesota nice, apparently.
Arizona also took top honors in the FINN study for confrontational drivers. The most common forms of rage faced by drivers here are being yelled at, insulted or threatened. But the words often turn into aggressive driving, according to the report: 56.5% of drivers in Arizona have purposely been blocked from changing lanes, and more than 50% also have been cut off on purpose.
Arizona ranks ahead of Rhode Island, West Virginia, Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Texas and Ohio for confrontational drivers.
In 2022, there were 622 suspected road rage incidents in the state, Mitchell said, citing statistics from the Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
