Judge turns down defense motion in Trumbull vehicular homicide case

WARREN — A county judge has let stand what he said was nonessential language in the indictment charging an Austintown man with three counts each of aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault in the deaths of three Marine recruits.

Judge Andrew D. Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday overruled a motion by Atty. J. Gerald Ingram to delete the language from the indictment against Ingram’s client, Donald P. Williams Jr., 46, of Bainbridge Avenue.

The judge let stand wording in the indictment alleging Williams “continued to plow down several more vehicles, failing to come to a complete stop until traveling 581 feet after his initial impact.”

The judge said that wording, although not essential to the indictment, is useful in informing Williams concerning details of the allegations against him.

Prosecutors said Williams was “drug drunk” and speeding when he rear-ended a car containing four Marine recruits en route to complete their enlistment on March 31, 2010. Three of the four recruits died of injuries from the crash.

The crash occurred while the Marine Corps car was stopped at the traffic light on state Route 5 at Burnett Street just west of Warren.