A 48-year-old motorist who has been caught multiple times driving drunk and without a license has been sentenced for once again being intoxicated when he killed a 21-year-old pedestrian in a hit-and-run crash in northern Minnesota.

Bruce A. Basswood, of Ponsford, Minn., was sentenced in Becker County District Court to a term of 7â…” years after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash in February 2018 that killed Joshua C. Jones, 21, also of Ponsford.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Basswood will serve slightly more than four years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

Basswood has now been convicted at least seven times in Minnesota for drunken driving, first when he was 20 years old.

He's also been convicted six times for driving despite a canceled license, most recently in May 2017. In that case, Wadena County District Judge Waldemar Senyk sentenced him to a year in jail, then set him free after he served one month and put him on two years' unsupervised probation.

Court records show that Basswood hasn't had a valid license in Minnesota since 1991.

Bruce Basswood

Basswood was eastbound on Pow Wow Hwy. east of Pine Point about 7:25 p.m. when he hit Jones, who was on foot. Emergency responders pronounced Jones dead at the scene.

Basswood and two other people, both passengers, were found at a home in Pine Point, and all were arrested. A preliminary breath test by law enforcement found Basswood's blood alcohol content at 0.10 percent, above the legal limit for driving in Minnesota. He also admitted using methamphetamine a few days earlier.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482