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Driver pleads innocent in deaths of recruits
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Donald Williams
Marine Recruits Tragedy
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By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
An Austintown man accused of driving a tractor-trailer that rear-ended a car in Leavittsburg, killing three Marine Corps recruits, pleaded innocent Monday to three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and three counts of aggravated vehicular assault.
Donald P. Williams Jr., 45, of Bainbridge Avenue, turned himself in at the Trumbull County Jail just before his 2 p.m. arraignment in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. He was secretly indicted last week by a Trumbull County grand jury.
Judge Peter Kontos set Williams’ bond at $250,000 but said Williams and his attorney, J. Gerald Ingram, will have the opportunity at a Wednesday morning pretrial hearing to argue that the bond should be lower.
The three most serious charges filed against Williams could result in a prison term of up to 15 years. The three other charges carry a prison term of up to 41/2 years.
Williams told investigators he doesn’t remember the moments just before the accident and thinks he “blacked out” just before the accident, which occurred in the westbound lanes of state Route 5 in the area known as Center of the World.
The three recruits — Zachary A. Nolen, 19, of Mineral Ridge and Newton Falls, Joshua A. Sherbourne, 21, of Southington, and Michael T. Theodore Jr., 19, of Howland — were all in the back seat of a Pontiac G6 that was stopped at a traffic light March 31 at Burnett Road.
The three men and a fourth recruit were on their way to Cleveland with a recruiter to complete their enlistment in the Marines. The fourth recruit and the recruiter survived the accident, which also injured people in several other vehicles.
Investigators said video footage from inside Williams’ truck indicated that Williams didn’t slow down before the crash.
Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Monday that “some information” did come back from the toxicology report done on a sample of Williams’ blood, but he was not able to discuss what it showed.
All six charges against Williams allege that his actions were reckless.
In court, Burnett recommended a $250,000 bond because of Williams’ previous criminal record and because Williams’ job as an over-the-road truck driver means he’s “transient.”
Ingram, who entered the innocent plea for Williams, said a $250,000 bond is “ludicrous.” Ingram said he believes Williams has only one previous conviction dating back to the mid-1980s.
Burnett said he didn’t have Williams’ complete criminal history at hand, but he believes he had two drunken-driving convictions and one for felony drug dealing.
Ingram noted that Williams lost his truck-driving job with Strimbu Trucking of Brookfield as a result of the accident and was recently hired as a construction foreman.
Ingram added that Williams lives with his wife, Anna, in their own home, and together they raised a daughter, now 24.
Further, Ingram said he informed Williams last week that he was probably about to be indicted, yet he didn’t flee.
Judge W. Wyatt McKay, who has been assigned the case, will be able to re-evaluate Williams’ bond amount at a pretrial hearing Wednesday morning, Judge Kontos said.
Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle records show Williams was convicted of drunken driving three times — in 2000, 1992 and 1987 — and was also convicted in 2000 of allowing his daughter and other juveniles to use drugs or alcohol in an Austintown motel room.
The drug conviction occurred on a 1988 case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.