Georgia Teen Gets Fifteen Years For Fatal DUI Crash
How many other teenagers are going to ruin their lives or take the life of someone they care about? Alcohol kills, that’s a fact. The article below is a testament to the fact that one "fun" party can have disastrous effects.
Content and Photo by Mitch Sneed/Douglas County Sentinel
A teenager who was driving a vehicle under the influence last February when it crashed and killed a Villa Rica girl has entered a guilty plea and will serve at least seven years in jail.
Jason Lark, standing before Judge Robert James in a Douglas County courtroom Friday, acknowledged the charges and said he was guilty. Then with tears streaming down his face and openly sobbing, he apologized to everyone and took full responsibility for what he had done.
On Feb. 19, Lark, 17 at the time of the incident, was driving a vehicle filled with a group of people who had been to two area parties where underage drinking was present. The Chevy Blazer overturned, ejecting and killing Cheyenne Sauls, a 16-year-old student at Villa Rica High School. Lark was also charged with driving under the influence following the crash.
“I am so sorry,” Lark said, red-faced and weeping as he looked to Sauls’ parents, Eric and Debbie. “I wish it hadn’t happened. It’s all my fault. I am so sorry. It should have been me.”
He looked at the other victims, Tayler Coss and Jamie McManus who were seating in the gallery, and apologized to them too.
He was sentenced to 15 years on the three most serious charges, all to run concurrently. Under the deal, he must serve a minimum of seven years. He was also granted first-offender status, which means that if he serves his sentence successfully, he will have the felonies off his record. But should he do anything wrong again, he could be forced to serve an additional 31 years in jail.
Sauls’ parents both looked Lark in the eye and forgave him.
Debbie Sauls said her daughter’s room is exactly the way it was the day she died, bed unmade and her clothes around the room. She talked about having to go there at times to feel close to her daughter.
“Cheyenne would have forgiven you and said ‘it was an accident’ — and I forgive you,” the mother said. “I know it was an accident. It took me a long time to get to this point, and I am not mad at you.”
She wasn’t so forgiving of the adults charged in the case. The parents who allowed drinking at house parties, 21-year-old Dustin Willis, who bought alcohol, and the store owners who allowed it to be purchased were all called out by Debbie Sauls.
Eric Sauls read from a letter by a family that Cheyenne often visited, but at the end, it was his words to Lark that were the most touching. He recalled back to a meeting that Lark and the Sauls family had in a conference room before the plea deal was made.
“From the first time we met, you looked me in the eye and owned up to what you did and took full responsibility,” Eric Sauls said. “That’s something that a lot of grown men can’t do. I respect you for that, and I forgive you.”
Judge James took the opportunity to caution all the young people in the courtroom.
“I want you all to look around at each other and ask yourselves ‘which one of us will be the next one standing here,’ ” James said, pointing to where Lark was standing. “Or which one of our parents will be sitting where these parents are today. Alcohol is a dangerous thing, and the decisions made are often ones that can’t be taken back.”
Lark will also pay restitution, an amount that will be set after civil litigation is complete. He will also testify in other cases that are still pending in the incident.
17-Year-Old Teen with 1st DUI Results in Vehicular Homicide
MANSFIELD — A Mansfield teen has been arrested on charges of vehicular homicide and DWI first offense after an accident claimed the life of a teen pedestrian on Willard Street. The two had reportedly been arguing, police said.
Solomon Murray, 17, of the 200 block of Willard, was arrested a short distance away from the scene on Sample Street, police said. Murray was booked into the DeSoto Parish Detention Center on Saturday morning after the vehicle he was driving ran over the victim, Corey Cruse, 22, of the 400 block of Willard Street.
Cruse was taken by LifeAir to Louisiana State Health and Science Center where he later died, police said.
Drunk 15-Year-Old Wastes Community Resources
A slew of emergency responders descended on Thetis Lake Park for a reported rescue operation Friday, but instead found a 15-year-old male on a hill who was too drunk to walk.
“Apparently he’s so drunk he can’t even function,” said View Royal fire Chief Paul Hurst. “He is not injured. He is just intoxicated.”
The teen was put in a “mule,” a stretcher with a large rubber tire in the centre making it easier for responders to evacuate people from difficult terrain.
View Royal Fire Rescue, B.C. Ambulance, West Shore RCMP and CRD bylaw officers attended the 2:30 p.m. call to the popular regional park. “This is waste of resources,” Hurst said. “Our whole department is over here dealing with the issue.”
If there had been another emergency in View Royal, the call would have been diverted to Colwood Fire Rescue.
The teen was transported to hospital. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he appeared unconscious as firefighters wheeled him out of the forest.
Four of his friends had not been drinking and Hurst said they were co-operating and helpful.
One young man who admitted to drinking with the teen said they had been consuming Jack Daniel’s and beer. “I hope my friend doesn’t die, that would suck,” he said. “But he’s tough so I know he won’t die.”
It was a rough start to the Labour Day weekend, but being drunk at the lake could have had worse outcomes, Hurst said. “(What if) he’s that hammered and walked off a cliff?”
(By Charla Huber – Goldstream News Gazette)
Underage Drinking… How Young Does It Start?
CLARKSVILLE, IN (WAVE) -
A Clarksville couple is picking up the pieces of their shattered home. Police say a 14-year-old girl, running from an officer, plowed into the side of the house late Friday night.
"I told Frank it sounded like a car hit something or something exploded," said Joanna Ridenour.
She and her husband were sitting in their back room watching TV, when the SUV came through the front window.
"I come in here to look out the front door and all I seen was this car in my living room and I just went to pieces," said Ridenour.
Clarksville police say just minutes earlier, they were chasing the silver SUV but lost sight of it.
Witnesses told police the car was going 50 to 60 miles an hour, when it missed the turn at Longfellow and Marlowe and plowed into the Ridenour’s house.
Ridenour says the teen inside refused to get out and a neighbor had to break the back window.
"The police opened the door and got her out and handcuffed her," she said, "and she just said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know. I want my mama. I’m only 14.”
Police say that 14 year old driver admitted she’d had ten alcoholic drinks and her drinking buddies gave her the keys to go get more. She said she got scared when she saw the police car because she just got out of juvenile detention and was on probation.
"I pray for her, being 14 years old and drinking like that," Ridenour said. "She needs help and she needs her parents beside her."
Joanna’s family is now surrounding her, trying to help her and her husband, who went to the hospital with chest pains after the crash. They’re also searching for one member of the family, still missing.
"I’ve lost one of my cats," she said. "I can’t find her. She sleeps under my couch in my living room and I don’t know whether she got out before the — if she had the chance to get out before the car come running through."
Other than that, Joanna is trying to stay positive. She says she’s looking forward to picking out paint colors and new carpet.
As for the 14 year old girl, police say they tried to call her mother and even go to her house but it was several hours before she showed up at the hospital.
The teen was taken to Clark County juvenile detention. She’s charged with operating while intoxicated.
Drinking Alcohol Can Change Teenager’s Life! Permanently
A 16-year-old driver has admitted responsibility for causing a wreck that killed another 16 year old in July.
His admission is basically like pleading guilty in adult court.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Adam Fredmund, 16, of Mountain Top admitted drinking alcohol and crashing the car that killed Brian Madry, 16, who would have been a senior at Crestwood High School this year.
Fredmund admitted to a judge in juvenile court all the charges against him including homicide by vehicle and underage drinking.
It’s similar to a guilty plea. Investigators said Fredmund was not charged with a DUI because too many hours had passed between the crash and the blood alcohol tests.
In July, investigators said Fredmund was driving the car after drinking alcohol along a gravel road in Mountain Top.
The car hit a rock and flipped, killing Madry.
Madry would have been a senior at Crestwood High School, where classes began on Monday.
Students have mixed views about how their class is handling the death.
When senior Gene Parry was asked, “Do you think any lessons have been learned by your fellow classmates through all of this?” he replied, “for some yea, but no not really.”
“As a class we are really trying to show Brian, we are making him proud we just want to be a good class of 2012 for him and we are just sad that he can’t be here with us,” said senior Lindsey Dotzel.
Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll hopes this and other recent tragedies involving teens send a message to kids and adults.
“I hope that it makes it a reality for kids that they understand what can happen if they drink and drive and all they have to do is look at the circumstances of cases which we had in the past where if you drink and drive you actually are jeopardizing your life or someone else’s and terrible tragedies result.” Said Musto Carroll.
Fredmund is scheduled to learn his fate during a juvenile hearing set for September 15.
(Reported by Jim Murdoch, WNEP-TV )
Teen’s Life Wasted From Alcohol and DUI
In February, 2011, a 17-year-old was charged with vehicular HOMICIDE after killing a 16-year-old girl while driving drunk.
One split second after making a bad choice to drink and drive… now their lives and the lives of friends and family have been changed forever.
"This is sad, yes. However, these children were the master of their own destiny. Now that child Jason will live in hate from the family that lost their daughter. All of those children decided to go out and party. So all of those children should be held accountable for what happened, even the girl who lost her life. She got in the car with a person who was drunk.
I am glad that there is still civilizations where teenagers aren’t out boozing and acting irresponsible in the world. It gives humanity a bad name when society portrays this instead of poor children dying of hunger or being raped by elderly men who have aids because they believe it will pass it onto the virgin. Americans need to grow up."
Channel 2 Action News reporter George Howell spoke with police, who said three of the teens involved in the crash are students at Alexander High School in Douglas County. The 16-year-old girl who was killed, Cheyanne Sauls, attended Villa Rica High School. A fourth teenage passenger fled the scene on foot, police said.
Investigators said the driver lost control of his Chevrolet Blazer on a curve. The SUV flipped several times before slamming into a U-Haul truck, police said."
Below is a comment from a newspaper article mentioning this terrible life-snuffing event:
"Television media failed to highlight Cheyenne’s dad publicly stating that he wants to use his daughter’s death to make a statement to all how quickly life can change; how every day is a gift; how all the drama cannot bring his daughter back."
This is NOT the way to get your name in the paper. Do something with your life! Create something. Discover something. Heal something. BE something. But, whatever you do, don’t be a drunk!
Good News About Teens
(From Reader’s Digest, July 2011)
For all the gnashing of teeth about kids today, teens appear to be getting their acts together:
Since 1990, the percentage of high school students who smoke or drink has declined.
Fewer teenagers drink and drive or ride with drivers who have been drinking. More students report wearing seat belts, and significantly fewer are involved in fatal car crashes.
Got DUI?
Serving N.W. Metro Atlanta Area:
| Acworth |
| Austell |
| Canton |
| Cartersville |
| Dallas |
| Hiram |
| Kennesaw, |
| Marietta |
| Powder Springs |
| Roswell |
| Smyrna |
| Woodstock |
|
|
|
You can WIN this huge 53" lovable bear. Ask for details at the school. |
