4/29/08

Jury's verdict, sentence upheld

A 19-year-old woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter will serve a 15-month sentence.

GLOUCESTER - It was, without a doubt, the strangest moment in the December manslaughter trial of a Gloucester teen accused of criminal negligence in a 2006 car crash that killed four of her young friends.

Seven hours into the second day of the trial of Deidra Reynolds, 19, on charges of involuntary manslaughter, a juror passed a handwritten communique to Amy VanFossen, Reynolds defense attorney, who was cross-examining an accident-reconstruction expert. It said, in VanFossen's words, "something to the effect of, 'Move on. Get along with it. We've got it.'"

The curious note, which at the time precipitated a lengthy recess and threats from VanFossen to request a mistrial, re-emerged Monday during Reynolds' formal sentencing hearing, when VanFossen asked a Gloucester circuit court judge to throw out the jury's original guilty verdict.

"There should have been some sort of admonishment and curative instruction, and we don't have that," VanFossen argued Monday. "The court should have declared her no longer an impartial juror."

VanFossen also argued that Reynolds' actions the night of the Oct. 7, 2006, wreck, while "grossly negligent," didn't rise to the level required to convict a defendant of involuntary manslaughter.

Gloucester Circuit Court Judge William H. Shaw III disagreed on both counts, upholding the jury's verdict and its recommended sentence of 15 months in prison. Reynolds was the designated driver when the accident occurred, shuttling friends in a borrowed sport-utility vehicle from Gloucester Courthouse to a party off T.C. Walker Road. Testifying in December, Reynolds said she was driving approximately 55 mph when she felt the truck "wobble," but she remembered nothing else of the single-vehicle accident.

But a state police accident investigator testified that data recovered from the truck's "black box" showed Reynolds was driving faster than 90 mph moments before losing control of the truck and colliding with a tree more than 200 feet away.

Killed in the wreck were Robbie Harwood, 18; Jamie Carmine, 18; Sean McNulty, 20; and Everett Rich, 22, Reynolds boyfriend at the time. All four were Gloucester natives.

Reynolds, who said she made sure every party-goer either had a designated driver or spent the night, does not plan to appeal her conviction, VanFossen said.

-Daily Press