Fatal West Virginia DUI trial stirs up emotions
On the eve of jury selection for his son's criminal trial, John Stone faced the days ahead with hope only for a measure of fairness in the courtroom.
Because of the circumstances of the case, he'd never dare to ask for sympathy or understanding or forgiveness.
Brian J. Stone, 33, of Cheat Lake, W.Va., is charged with killing five people and injuring seven others in July while sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle that his father knows he had no right to drive. Once more, the repeat offender with a string of convictions behind him is accused of putting his key in the ignition and driving drunk.
"I'm absolutely sure people are against him since so many people died," the elder Stone, 64, said of his son. "I think he'll get life in prison, but I hope I'm dreadfully wrong. I hope I can see him out of jail while I'm still alive to see him."
Prosecutors Marcia Ashdown and Perri DeChristopher and the defendant's court-appointed attorney, Kevin Tipton, will choose jurors this morning in Morgantown, W.Va. Monongalia County Circuit Judge Russell M. Clawges Jr. will hear the case.
Brian Stone is charged with five counts of driving under the influence causing death, five counts of third offense DUI, seven counts of DUI resulting in injury, five counts of leaving the scene of an accident causing death and seven counts of leaving the scene of an accident causing injury.
Ashdown on Monday declined to comment about the trial, noting that news media outlets in West Virginia agreed -- until a jury is seated -- to refrain from printing articles about the case that gained widespread attention in the days and weeks after the crash.
"I want to be able to pick a jury," Ashdown said. "It's not appropriate for anyone to be talking about this case now."
Some relatives of the victims say they might not attend the trial.
Anne Koslik of Middletown, Conn., the maternal grandmother of Cory and Aynna Perry, who were injured in the crash, said the months since the accident have been difficult for the family.
"We're just doing the best we can. We're just surviving," she said. "I don't really want to see him in person. I don't have time to be angry. If I spend all of my time on how angry I am at Brian Stone, I would not be living."
Authorities said Stone, who maintained a Pennsylvania address of Gans in Fayette County, was driving a Ford pickup truck in the eastbound lane of Interstate 68 near Morgantown when he rear-ended a Ford Taurus. The impact hurtled the Taurus across the highway into oncoming traffic, where it slammed into a Chevrolet Trailblazer.
When police and rescuers arrived, Stone was walking away, authorities said. Monongalia County sheriff's deputies arrested him after he failed three sobriety tests.
Courtney Evans, 30, an electrical engineer and CSX operator, and his 12-year-old son, Sawyer, were killed. His wife, Sheena, then 29, and son John, 3, were injured. Authorities said the Baltimore family had visited the area and were returning home in their Taurus.
The other fatalities were three members of a Clarksburg, W.Va., family traveling home in the Trailblazer after visiting relatives in Middletown, Conn. Manufacturing engineer Donnell Perry, 52, and his daughters, Jentil, 15, and Jacquesha, 13, died at the scene, authorities said.
In addition to Cory and Aynna Perry, Perry's wife, Marcia, then 48, daughter, Justine, 18, and granddaughter Mia Barnes, 18 months, were injured.
Koslik said Aynna suffered multiple broken bones and other injuries that caused physicians to implant a "steel rod that holds her leg together."
"She loved to dance. She can't dance anymore," she said.
Both Aynna, and Cory, who is credited with saving the toddler's life after the crash, are afraid to travel in vehicles, she said. During a recent trip to Florida, both children had to be given medication because they're "afraid they're going to get in an accident and be killed."
Koslik said her goal is to work to change laws that govern licensing.
Records show that Stone, whose history of DUI offenses in Pennsylvania and West Virginia dates to 1998, lied on his application for a driver's license and failed to disclose his DUI convictions. Stone, who was under a license suspension in West Virginia, has been charged in Pennsylvania with lying to PennDOT to obtain a driver's license and with driving a vehicle without insurance.
"I don't understand how this happened. He just fell through the cracks," Koslik said.
Stone's father acknowledges his son has alcohol problems, which he attributes to a childhood and adolescence in which he suffered the loss of a 14-year-old brother in a gun accident and another brother in a motorcycle accident. He said Brian Stone suffered a head injury in an earlier accident.
Stone managed to hold down some general labor jobs -- including one that required his father to drive him 147 miles one way to work -- but has not been able to keep a girlfriend or many friends.
"He was 17 when he had the head injury and he had been drinking then," the elder Stone said. "He's been in trouble ever since. Brian is stuck at 17 in a lot of ways."
