Tickfaw Boat Wreck Killer - Only Sentenced 2 Years in Prison

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LIVINGSTON — Jason Chaisson, the man operating a 25-foot Sea Fox vessel that collided with a party pontoon barge and killed two people last July, was sentenced Friday in a Livingston Parish courtroom.

Chaisson pleaded no contest to reduced charges on July 7, including two counts of negligent homicide and five counts of negligent injuring. A judge sentenced him to five years for each negligent homicide charge to run consecutively with all but one year suspended on each charge. That means he will serve two years behind bars in Department of Corrections custody along with six months for each of the five negligent injuring charge, which will run concurrently with the DOC sentence.

He was remanded to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office custody effective immediately and did not leave the courthouse.

Thuy Gustin and Chase Sharkey, the operator of the pontoon, were both killed in the crash.

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“It’s been a year and I still can’t put into words what this has done to me or our four children,” Starkey’s wife Shelli said in court. “I wish Chase would come in my dreams, I wish he would because it’s the only way I can see him.

“I didn’t know you before the accident. This wasn’t your first boat accident. It wasn’t your first DUI. Chase knew as soon as your boat came into vision that you were trouble.”

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She wrapped up her statement by looking right at Jason Chaisson and saying, “F*** you for letting people think my sister was drugged.” She added that Thuy’s toxicology report came back with no drugs in her system at all despite Jason telling people “she was high and on mushrooms.”

Xena made sure to let the judge know that while passengers from both boats were searching for Thuy and Chase, Jason threatened one of the men from the other boat, “You better get the f*** back on your boat if you know what’s best for you.”

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UWK searched Jason Chaisson’s criminal history in Livingston Parish and discovered a previous DWI arrest from April 30, 2023. During that incident, Chaisson was nearly twice the legal limit when he was arrested for his first-offense DWI.

Chaisson was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and improper lane usage after a traffic stop on Hwy. 43 in Springfield. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and that case is still ongoing in the Livingston Parish court system.

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