Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 29, 1993 TAG: 9303290018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GALAX LENGTH: Medium
It had been four years since another 11-year-old boy, Sammy Oscar Brown, was struck and killed by a Galax man, Dennis East, who later was charged with driving under the influence.
East resigned after the accident as director of social services in Floyd County. He and Robert Thomas Carson Jr., also of Galax, eventually pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Authorities charged that the two were racing when East's car struck Sammy Brown, who was pushing his bicycle on the side of the road near his home. Both men eventually signed statements admitting they were drunk and driving in an irresponsible manner.
On May 1, 1989, East was sentenced to five years in prison. He was to be on probation for three years after his release, and was to perform 400 hours of community service.
He also was convicted of driving under the influence, but appealed the conviction to circuit court. It was dismissed on the grounds that no trial was held within nine months. A charge of leaving the scene of an accident also was dismissed.
East received treatment for alcoholism following Sammy Brown's death in 1988 and, according to letters in the court file written on his behalf before his sentencing, came close to losing his sanity over what happened.
East was released Jan. 11, 1991, and completed his community service a year later. When asked if he would discuss the matter, he declined.
Carson received a three-year sentence March 30, 1989, but did not serve it all. He was released from supervised probation at the recommendation of his probation officer Feb. 13, 1992. Sixteen years before the 1988 Galax accident, when he was 19, Carson was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of another boy, 10-year-old Mike Reedy, who was pushing his bicycle along a road in Carroll County. Carson was convicted of improper driving, paying a $26 fine including court costs.
Guy R. Reedy, the father of the boy killed in 1972, was prepared to testify at Carson's trial that Dennis East had a part in his son's death, too, because Carson and East were racing home by different routes that day. The testimony was not admitted, and East was not charged in connection with Reedy's death.
In the time between the deaths of Sammy Brown and W.K. Dees, five more people have been killed in alcohol-related accidents in this area.
Dale Woodrowe Testerman of neighboring Grayson County was sentenced in 1991 to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and hit-and-run in the deaths of Ernest and Montie Sutherland. Witnesses testified that Testerman was drunk the night of Nov. 2, 1990, when he struck and killed the couple as they were walking to their car.
Testerman, like Carson and East prior to their involvement in the 1988 accident, had a previous record of offenses, including drunk driving.
On Dec. 22, 1990, three people were killed when their Camaro roared into Galax and crashed head-on into a service truck. An autopsy showed that the driver, 25-year-old Danny Johnson of Jonesville, N.C., was intoxicated beyond the legal limit for driving.
"I think people in this community have just had enough," said Michael Dees, father of the boy killed three months ago.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB