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Dee Swiss Thomas III
An Azalea man accused of driving his pickup in the wrong lane last year on Azalea-Glen Road and slamming head-on into a motorcycle, killing the rider, will have to serve 36 months of probation, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Dee Swiss Thomas III, 55, pleaded no contest in Douglas County Circuit Court to criminally negligent homicide in the September 2007 death of Robert Francis Perius, 39, also of Azalea.
Judge William Lasswell agreed to sentence the man according to a plea agreement that Deputy District Attorney Dave Hopkins granted had been difficult for the victim’s family to come to terms with.
“I think they have some misgivings this morning,” Hopkins told the judge, as more than a dozen of Perius’ supporters looked on.
Thomas also received a 90-day jail sentence, but with credit for time served, he was released from the Douglas
County Jail Wednesday. His driver’s license will be suspended for eight years.
In exchange for his plea, which is not an admission of guilt, Thomas avoided up to 40 months in prison. However, if Thomas violates any conditions of his probation, Hopkins said he will see to it that the man goes to prison.
Defense attorney Leeon “Butch” Aller said he believes the plea deal was offered in part because of evidence he presented to Hopkins from an accident reconstruction expert that “cast great doubts into the accuracy of the state’s case.”
Scientific evidence would have shown at trial, he said, that Thomas was driving in his own lane at the time of the crash.
Hopkins contends, however, that Thomas’ pickup was completely in the oncoming lane when it struck the motorcycle.
“Mr. Perius never had a chance,” he said.
And while the state was not able to prove Thomas was intoxicated at the time of the crash, the man admitted to smoking marijuana earlier that day, Hopkins said.
Aller said his client was sober that evening, but the medical examiner found that Perius was “legally drunk” at the time of the crash.
Several of Perius’ family members, including his mother, stepfather and his fiancee and her teenage son, addressed the judge before sentencing, asking for the defendant to receive the maximum penalty.
Kimberly Standridge said when her fiancee failed to return home that night, she went looking for him, and found him dead.
“A piece of me died right there,” she said, explaining how her and her son’s lives have been shattered since.
Perius had many dear friends, she said, and was finally leading the “clean life” he’d wanted. Hundreds showed up to his funeral, many of them fellow bikers.
Standridge said her fiancé was always protective of his loved ones when they rode motorcycles together.
“He would always go first so another car wouldn’t hit us,” she said.
• You can reach reporter Chelsea Duncan at 957-4246 or by e-mail at cduncan@nrtoday.com.
Dee Swiss Thomas III, 55, pleaded no contest in Douglas County Circuit Court to criminally negligent homicide in the September 2007 death of Robert Francis Perius, 39, also of Azalea.
Judge William Lasswell agreed to sentence the man according to a plea agreement that Deputy District Attorney Dave Hopkins granted had been difficult for the victim’s family to come to terms with.
“I think they have some misgivings this morning,” Hopkins told the judge, as more than a dozen of Perius’ supporters looked on.
Thomas also received a 90-day jail sentence, but with credit for time served, he was released from the Douglas
County Jail Wednesday. His driver’s license will be suspended for eight years.
In exchange for his plea, which is not an admission of guilt, Thomas avoided up to 40 months in prison. However, if Thomas violates any conditions of his probation, Hopkins said he will see to it that the man goes to prison.
Defense attorney Leeon “Butch” Aller said he believes the plea deal was offered in part because of evidence he presented to Hopkins from an accident reconstruction expert that “cast great doubts into the accuracy of the state’s case.”
Scientific evidence would have shown at trial, he said, that Thomas was driving in his own lane at the time of the crash.
Hopkins contends, however, that Thomas’ pickup was completely in the oncoming lane when it struck the motorcycle.
“Mr. Perius never had a chance,” he said.
And while the state was not able to prove Thomas was intoxicated at the time of the crash, the man admitted to smoking marijuana earlier that day, Hopkins said.
Aller said his client was sober that evening, but the medical examiner found that Perius was “legally drunk” at the time of the crash.
Several of Perius’ family members, including his mother, stepfather and his fiancee and her teenage son, addressed the judge before sentencing, asking for the defendant to receive the maximum penalty.
Kimberly Standridge said when her fiancee failed to return home that night, she went looking for him, and found him dead.
“A piece of me died right there,” she said, explaining how her and her son’s lives have been shattered since.
Perius had many dear friends, she said, and was finally leading the “clean life” he’d wanted. Hundreds showed up to his funeral, many of them fellow bikers.
Standridge said her fiancé was always protective of his loved ones when they rode motorcycles together.
“He would always go first so another car wouldn’t hit us,” she said.
• You can reach reporter Chelsea Duncan at 957-4246 or by e-mail at cduncan@nrtoday.com.
