WARREN - The lawyer for a truck driver accused of causing an accident that killed three U.S. Marine recruits March 31 says his client deserves to have a lower bond because he is not a flight risk and that he has cooperated fully with authorities.
J. Gerald Ingram, attorney for 44-year-old Donald Williams of Austintown, filed the motion in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Friday, adding that the state will have a hard time proving that Williams' conduct the day of the accident was reckless and, despite some criminal convictions in the past, he has had a clean record recently.
''The defendant is not a danger to any person in the community,'' Ingram wrote.
Williams was taken into custody Monday after he was secretly indicted by a grand jury last week on three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and three counts of aggravated vehicular assault for the crash involving the group of recruits on their way to Cleveland to sign enlistment papers. He has been jailed on $250,000 bond since his arraignment.
A bond hearing was to be held before Judge W. Wyatt McKay, but he recused himself from the case. A hearing will now be heard Tuesday before Judge Andrew Logan.
The car the recruits were riding in was rammed from behind by a semi driven by Williams at the intersection of state Route 5 and Burnett Road in Warren Township. Killed were Joshua Sherbourne, 21, of Southington; Zach Nolen, 19, of Newton Falls; and Michael Theodore, 19, of Howland.
Also injured was another recruit, 18-year-old Carl McDermott of Brookfield, as well as the driver of the car, Marine Sgt. Charles Keene, 25. A third person was also injured.
In a motion Assistant Prosecutor Michael Burnett filed Wednesday to support the high bond, he stated that tests showed that Williams had levels of the drugs Diazepam and N-Desmethyldiazepam, which is used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms and seizures and to control agitation associated with withdrawal of alcohol. He is not accused of being under the influence of those drugs, but they were in his system at the time of the accident.
Burnett's motion also stated that Williams has three previous drunken driving convictions in 2000, 1993 and 1987, was convicted of selling alcohol to minors and contributing the delinquency of minors in 2000 and was arrested for falsification in 2001, as well as a felony drug offense in 1989 for which he served prison time.
Ingram said Williams had several chances to flee since the accident but he has not left the area. Ingram wrote that his client also has a job with a local construction company, has stayed out of trouble since 2001 when he was arrested for falsification and that his client has never failed to appear for a court proceeding.
Ingram said Williams will agree to travel restrictions, house arrest, random drug tests and any other reasonable conditions for bond. He proposed a bond of $50,000, allowing Williams to post 10 percent.