Iowa driver pleads guilty to hobo's death

A 40-year-old Iowa man has pleaded guilty to driving drunk when he struck and killed bicycling "hobo" Randy Nomeland, 60, of Minneapolis, on July 29, 2011.

Travis Thomas of Floyd, Iowa, has entered written guilty pleas to felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and OWI. Thomas will appear in court for a plea change hearing on May 8, according to Mason City Globe Gazette. He faces up to five years in prison.

Thomas was eastbound on U.S. Highway 19 near Britt, Iowa, when he struck "Railroad Randy," who was eastbound on a bicycle. He was in the area for the National Hobo Convention, at which he planned to run for "hobo king," according to his brother Timothy Nomeland.

Randy rode the rails from 1979 to 2001, finding work where he could, but when in Minneapolis lived in a three-plex apartment.

"He always wanted to go places and see places and he did so in such a beautiful way," Connecticut Shorty of Britt, a hobo friend or Randy's, told the Gazette.