By Mike Allen
The Roanoke Times - October 27, 2008

Content Source

Attorneys have finished opening statements in the aggravated involuntary manslaughter trial for Tracie Nininger and Jeffrey Dupree.

Assistant Roanoke County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brain Holohan told Judge Jim Swanson that Dupree and Nininger were drinking and dancing at the Cornerstone Bar & Grill in downtown Roanoke prior to the pile-up that killed construction worker Richard Slone in February.

Flagman Roger Hawks, who was working at the construction site on Electric Road near Tanglewood Mall, saw Nininger’s Hummer coming through the travel lane beside the construction zone, with Dupree’s Chevrolet Avalanche close behind. He tried to warn them to stop but had to jump out of the way as they ignored him, the prosecutor said.

At that time, about 60 feet away, a worker had used a tractor to scoop a load of asphalt from the back of a dump truck and had turned perpendicular to the road in order to dump the load into a hole on the right shoulder. Slone was standing beside the dump truck.

The Hummer struck a blade protruding from the back of the tractor. Almost simultaneously, the Avalanche crashed into the Hummer. The combination of impacts caused the tractor to swivel so that the blade pinned Slone against the dump truck, Holohan said.

Nininger and Dupree both failed field sobriety tests. Nininger proved to have a blood alcohol content of 0.19 percent. Dupree refused to take a breath or blood test. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DUI this morning.

Holohan said both should be found guilty of aggravated involuntary manslaughter for their negligent driving in the construction zone while intoxicated.

Nininger’s attorney, Tony Anderson, and Dupree’s attorney, Richard Lawrence, both argued that their clients should not be held criminally responsible for Slone’s death. They contend that their clients were properly in the travel lane when the tractor suddenly backed into the lane, giving Nininger no time to react. They also used inconsistent testimony that Hawks gave at a preliminary hearing to assert that he was not stationed at the distance required by regulations to give drivers adequate warning when they need to stop in a construction zone. They also asserted that Nininger and Dupree were driving at most two or three miles per hour over the speed limit.

Even a driver with no alcohol in his or her system, faced with that situation, would not have had sufficient time to stop, Anderson said.

Lawrence called the accident “a tragedy of errors on everybody’s part.”

Prosecutors will call their first witnesses this afternoon.

Updated 11:15 a.m.
Prosecutors have agreed for the cases to be heard by Judge Jim Swanson instead of a jury. The court is in recess until this afternoon.

Updated 10:41 a.m.
Jury selection is about to begin in the trials of Tracie Nininger, 43, and Jeffrey Dupree, 33, who are charged in Roanoke County with the death of construction worker Richard Slone in a February crash.

Dupree and Nininger both pleaded guilty this morning to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and were found guilty by Circuit Court Judge Jim Swanson. They have pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated involuntary manslaughter.

Tthey asked for a bench trial, but Roanoke County prosecutors insisted they wished the trial to be held before a jury.

Dupree also is charged with refusing to take a blood test but, but his attorney, Richard Lawrence, asked that the charge be separated from the trial and heard another time. Swanson agreed.

The crash happened just after midnight on Feb. 20. along Electric Road near Tanglewood Mall. Slone was part of a construction crew filling a ditch beside the road with asphalt. Slone operated a dump truck, while James Harmon used a tractor to scoop asphalt from the truck to place in the ditch. They were working in the right northbound lane, which had been blocked off by cones. The left lane was open to traffic.

According to earlier court testimony, a flagman would stop traffic in the left lane as the tractor turned to unload its scoop into the ditch because the tractor's rear blade would sometimes cross into the left lane.

Roger Hawks, one of the flagman that night, has testified that as he stood in the left lane, he saw a Hummer speeding toward him with a black pickup truck right behind it. He said he had to jump out of the way to keep from being hit.

He turned and saw the Hummer H3 strike the tractor's rear blade. Almost simultaneously, the black truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, struck the Hummer.

Slone, who was standing beside the dump truck, was impaled by the tractor's rear blade, police have said.

Nininger, the driver of the Hummer, had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08, police said. Dupree, the driver of the pickup, did not allow himself to be tested.