MERCER COUNTY Man gets prison for traffic deaths

The driver told police he was unfamiliar with Millbrook Road and was having difficulty seeing in dense patchy fog.
BY MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER -- A man who caused two deaths by running a stop sign was sentenced to six to 18 months in prison.
Judge Thomas Dobson imposed the sentence Wednesday in Common Pleas Court on Ronald Sterrett, 47, of East Gilmore Street, Grove City.
Sterrett was originally charged with two counts of homicide by vehicle, and several other violations for the July 22, 2000, accident that killed James and Blanche Bodesheim. He pleaded guilty in November to a reduced consolidated charge of involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor.
The accident occurred as Sterrett was driving home at night from the Stoneboro Fairgrounds, where he had been working in a friend's food booth. He stated after his arrest that he was unfamiliar with Millbrook Road and was having difficulty seeing in dense patchy fog.
He failed to notice a warning and a stop sign and struck the Bodesheim car at state Route 173 in Worth Township. Mrs. Bodesheim died at the scene and her husband died 11 days later.
Sterrett could have been sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000.
DUI: Another man, Daryl Cameron, 40, of Brockway Avenue, Greenville, was sentenced to one month to two years in jail and fined $300 for injuring a woman in a traffic accident while he was intoxicated July 11, 2001. Cameron was also sentenced to 90 days and fined $500 for driving during suspension. That sentence was ordered served concurrently.
Cameron pulled from a stop sign into the path of a car driven by Margaret Paden. He then left the scene without checking Paden's condition. After driving several miles, his car stalled and he began walking home. When apprehended by Greenville police, he had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and admitted drinking two mixed drinks and two beers before the accident.
The victim was treated at a local hospital and later released.
Cameron, who was on five years' probation for an earlier misdemeanor conviction of making terroristic threats, also had his probation revoked and was sentenced to one to three years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a Greenville police officer while being handcuffed after a district court hearing in August 1999, and trying to kick the police car during a struggle.
Also sentenced Wednesday were:
Jason Boehm, 21, of Hadley Road, Greenville, to one to 12 months for cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor, and 18 months probation for criminal trespass, a felony, to be served consecutively. He was also fined $100 each for harassment and public intoxication, both summary offenses. Boehm broke into the residence of a woman he knew on Reseigh Road, Sandy Creek Township, Sept. 9, 2001, and killed her hamster by stamping on it. He then grabbed her around the throat and pulled her hair, restricting her movement.
Nicole Costea, 20, of Sharon-Hogue Road, Masury, to three to 18 months in jail and ordered to make restitution for insurance fraud, a felony. A co-defendant told police he and Costea poured gasoline over her 1994 Chevy Cavalier and then ignited it March 1, 2000, in the 200 block of York Way, Sharon.
Shawn Thompson, 19, of Young Way, Clarks Mills, to consecutive one- to two-year prison terms for two felony counts of burglary and one misdemeanor count of agricultural vandalism. He burglarized a home on Zahnizer Road, Jefferson Township, last August and also burglarized a residence in September 2001 on Redfoot Road, Delaware Township, defacing and damaging property used for farming. He was also ordered to make restitution.