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Man gets 8 years for OVI crash during chase
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Bryan Whitehurst told a judge he still does not know why he didn’t pull over for police in January and instead drove away at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour, crashing and killing his best friend.
“I honestly do not know why the events unfolded the way they did that horrible night,” Whitehurst said just before he was sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Friday to seven years in prison by Judge Lou D’Apolito.
Whitehurst, 41, of Alliance, pleaded guilty in July to charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer and operating a vehicle impaired in a Jan. 16 crash in Beloit that killed Custer Bauer, 43, of Alliance.
Reports said Whitehurst ran a red light about 2:30 a.m. at Ohio Avenue and 12th Street in Sebring and drove at high speed on Ohio Avenue into Beloit where he failed to make a curve, went off the left side of the road and struck a tree and a house at Fifth Street and Stanley Avenue. The residence sustained minor damage, but its occupants were not injured.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Bauer, who was partially ejected from the vehicle, was pronounced dead as the scene. Police said Whitehurst drove at speeds of up to 112 miles per hour, and he had a blood alcohol content of 0.195. In Ohio, a BAC of 0.08 or above is considered driving drunk.
Reading from a prepared statement, Whitehurst said Bauer was his best friend, and he thinks of him every day. He said he questions why he was the one who survived the crash and why he did not just pull over.
“He was like a brother to me,” Whitehurst said of Bauer.
Whitehurst, who was free on bond until the sentencing, said he understood he was going to prison. He said he hopes that Bauer’s family can somehow forgive him someday.
Judge D’Apolito said he thought Whitehurst’s remorse was genuine. He said cases such as Whitehurst’s are tough, but he said people who combine speed and alcohol and bad judgment often end up doing something that will adversely affect their life or someone else’s.
“What you could not understand was this lethal combination of speed over 100 miles per hour and the amount of alcohol and bad decisions would make this inevitable,” Judge D’Apolito said.