The Region - News from July 15, 1986

Vincent Neil Wharton, lead singer of the heavy-metal rock band Motley Crue, surrendered to begin serving a 30-day jail term for a drunk-driving collision that killed another musician and seriously injured two people in a second car. Wharton, 24, who uses the stage name Vince Neil, pleaded guilty last July to vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving in the December, 1984, traffic collision that killed Wharton’s passenger, Nicholas Dingley, 24, drummer of the now-defunct Finnish rock group Hanoi Rocks. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Edward Hinz Jr. ordered Wharton to pay $2.6 million in restitution to the victims of the crash. Hinz also sentenced Wharton, of Redondo Beach, to 30 days in County Jail and five years probation, and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service. The judge had allowed Wharton to delay serving his jail term until after his band had completed a tour of the United States and Europe.