Max
12-11-2002, 05:03 PM
Disabled driver will go to trial for death
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By Kimball Perry
Post staff reporter
A paraplegic who police say plowed the sport utility vehicle he was driving into a crowd of people walking into Paul Brown Stadium, killing a teen-ager, has been found mentally competent to stand trial.
Darrin Stafford, who has no feeling below his waist, was declared competent Tuesday by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Kraft after a mental clinic evaluation found him mentally able.
The SUV belonged to Frederick Shipman, 43, who got so drunk on the drive from Evansville, Ind., to a Bengals game on Nov. 18, 2001 that he let Stafford drive, police said.
The vehicle didn't have hand controls, so Stafford, of Evansville, used his hands to lift his feet on and off the gas and brake pedals, he told police.
He said he was trying to lift his leg to brake as it neared the intersection of Second and Race streets, but his shoe got caught in the pedals and the SUV kept on going through a red light, striking pedestrians, police said.
Killed was Scott Asbrock, 15, of Mason, the son of an Ohio State Patrolman based in Hamilton and the nephew of an Ohio State Patrolman in Lebanon, and of an Evendale police officer.
Stafford is scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 24, Shipman on March 3. Both men, from Evansville, are charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.
Publication Date: 12-11-2002
http://www.cincypost.com/2002/12/11/parap121102.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Kimball Perry
Post staff reporter
A paraplegic who police say plowed the sport utility vehicle he was driving into a crowd of people walking into Paul Brown Stadium, killing a teen-ager, has been found mentally competent to stand trial.
Darrin Stafford, who has no feeling below his waist, was declared competent Tuesday by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Kraft after a mental clinic evaluation found him mentally able.
The SUV belonged to Frederick Shipman, 43, who got so drunk on the drive from Evansville, Ind., to a Bengals game on Nov. 18, 2001 that he let Stafford drive, police said.
The vehicle didn't have hand controls, so Stafford, of Evansville, used his hands to lift his feet on and off the gas and brake pedals, he told police.
He said he was trying to lift his leg to brake as it neared the intersection of Second and Race streets, but his shoe got caught in the pedals and the SUV kept on going through a red light, striking pedestrians, police said.
Killed was Scott Asbrock, 15, of Mason, the son of an Ohio State Patrolman based in Hamilton and the nephew of an Ohio State Patrolman in Lebanon, and of an Evendale police officer.
Stafford is scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 24, Shipman on March 3. Both men, from Evansville, are charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.
Publication Date: 12-11-2002
http://www.cincypost.com/2002/12/11/parap121102.html