A Billings man was sentenced last week to 55 years in prison for killing a motorcyclist last year while trying to evade county deputies.

Jimmy Joe Flanagan previously pleaded guilty in Yellowstone County District Court to negligent homicide. The 43-year-old was at the wheel of a truck and hauling a stolen excavator when he blew through a stop sign near downtown Billings, colliding with a motorcycle ridden by Julian Wolf. Wolf, 28, did not survive the crash.

“The defendant (Flanagan) has engaged in criminal conduct throughout his life and failed to learn not to comport himself in the community,” wrote Senior Deputy County Attorney Benjamin J. Langford in his sentencing recommendation filed Sept. 15. “The defendant’s conduct demonstrated a conscious disregard of the risks his actions posed

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