17 years after killing Austin musician while driving drunk, driver arrested again for DWI

The Moonlight Express Orchestra is still playing nearly 4 decades after they first got together.
  
But for the past 17 years, they've been playing without their leader.

"Well if it wasn't for Clarence, the Moonlight Express would never have existed," said cornet player Mark R. Voges.

After getting his music degree from UT, Voges says he and Clarence Timmerman started what he calls a "dance band" in the mid '70s.

"You know we might play a jitterbug, a Frank Sinatra ballad, a mambo, 'Your Cheatin' Heart' a Hank Williams tune," Voges said.

Voges says Clarence was the leader.  He booked the gigs, picked the songs and played a mean trombone.

"Trombone!  And aww man could he play in style with feeling and a lot of fun.  Everybody liked Clarence and everybody enjoyed hearing him play.  It was a shock when what happened, happened," Voges said.

What happened -- would change the band forever.  In 1998, after a gig in Temple, Voges says Timmerman's car broke down on the side of I-35.  Timmerman was standing in front of it.

According to court documents, Bryson Reese drove his vehicle onto the right shoulder of I-35 hitting Timmerman's parked car.

"It makes the pickup go at an angle but it's still going so fast and it goes right in front of the parked vehicle and hits Clarence...and he was gone immediately...in an instant," Voges said.

Reese's blood test showed he was above the legal limit.

He was sentenced later that year to 10-years for Involuntary Manslaughter.

He only spent a few months in jail before being released on probation.

Reese was arrested again in 2012 and convicted of DWI in Lee County.  And this week he was caught swerving on I-35 and was arrested again for DWI here in Travis County.

"Same thing I think when I've heard it so many times on the news and I don't understand...I mean you're talking about 3 times.  Sometimes I've heard about people that have gotten 6 DWI's and they're still out there driving," Voges said.

As for Voges and the Moonlight Express, the show had to go on.  But they miss their friend Clarence.

"I can't tell you how many times I've thought 'Man, Clarence I hope you're looking down.  Because I think you'll be proud.  I think you'll be proud that we're still doing well...doing what you started,'" Voges said.

Reese's bail is $30,000 plus an alcohol monitoring system and no driving.