Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Before a judge sentenced him Wednesday morning, Scott Manning choked on his tears and said he was sorry for his part in Dustin Washburn's death.
"I can say that I guarantee this will never happen again," Manning, 19, said. "But that's not enough."
It wasn't enough for Dustin's father, John Washburn.
On Tuesday, Washburn's tickets for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament came in the mail. He and Dustin had gone to the college basketball tournament for the past four years. "We never missed a basketball or football game. . . . I had lunch with him at school three times a week. He always called to make sure I was coming."
Now, he drives by his son's old school and sees kids "laughing and happy. And that's the way he should be."
Washburn pleaded with Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue to punish Manning for his crime.
Trabue sentenced Manning to one year for reckless driving and six months for involuntary manslaughter.
He also fined Manning $1,000, ordered him to do 400 hours of community service and put him on probation for five years.
The judge found Manning guilty of reckless driving but said he will hold off formally convicting him of involuntary manslaughter. If Manning stays out of trouble for five years, Trabue will wipe the manslaughter charge off his record. But if Manning runs afoul of the law, Trabue will convict him - and sentence him to up to 10 years.
Trabue also took away Manning's driver's license for two years.
Two months ago, Trabue sentenced John Walton Stover, 20, to six years in prison for driving the car that actually killed Dustin.
Prosecutors say that on the night of June 3, Stover and Manning were racing on Peters Creek Road, cutting in and out of traffic. They sped side-by-side through a red light at Airport Road. Witnesses estimated they were going as fast as 90 mph.
Manning was in the lead as the two cars approached the light at Barrens Road. Manning cut to the right to avoid a slower-moving car in the left lane. Stover slammed into the rear of that car, killing Dustin.
Stover was drinking and driving on a license that had been restricted because of drunken driving. His case sparked calls for tougher laws against people who drive even after their licenses have been restricted or revoked.
Manning's attorney, Charles Cornelison, argued that Manning was less at fault than Stover, because his car wasn't the one involved in the fatal crash. Also, Cornelison said, Manning wasn't drinking that night, and he had a valid driver's license.
John Washburn argued that Manning should be held as responsible as Stover - just as a getaway driver who waits outside during a robbery is guilty, even though he doesn't go inside the bank.
"He didn't intend for it to happen," Washburn said. But with his reckless behavior, "it was going to happen."
Throughout most of the hearing, Manning sat hunched over, his stocky body turned toward his attorney - away from the prosecutor's table and Dustin's family. His elbows rested on the table and his clasped hands hid his face.
Then his attorney asked him to go to the witness stand. Manning stood up heavily. He wiped tears from his eyes with his palms. Then he walked around the table, blew out a puff of air, and sat down.
He said he could have prevented Dustin Washburn's death "if I had thought three or four minutes earlier."
He swiveled his chair and faced Dustin Washburn's family: "I know my apology is not enough to ever heal your pain. I wish . . . there was something I could - I wish that I could have helped your son. . . . I just want you to know that your family is everything."
Before the accident, Manning had had three speeding tickets, along with a reckless driving charge that a juvenile-court judge had taken under advisement and later dismissed.
Manning said Dustin's death has changed him, and he has learned his lesson.
But Commonwealth's Attorney F.W. "Skip" Burkhart pointed out that Manning had been caught speeding again just two months after the crash. He was pulled over on Forest Road, going 41 in a 25 mph zone.
"That's not real far from where the accident happened, isn't it?" Burkhart asked Manning.
Manning said "this isn't an excuse," but he had not known the speed limit on that road had been lowered from 35 to 25.
Manning admited, too, that he had had a "few beers" since the accident, even though he is under the legal drinking age. "I'm turned off by it," he said, but he drinks with his friends anyway. "But that is very, very few occasions."
Trabue also ordered Manning not to drink alcohol until he is 21.
Afterward, John Washburn said he thought the judge's sentence for Manning "was fair . . . under the laws."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB