Sunday, February 28, 1999
Repeat offender charged in deaths
Family of three killed in crash; alcohol blamed
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Charles A. Gumbert
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NEW RICHMOND — Authorities say they couldn't stop a repeat drunken driver from crossing the center line of Ohio 132 Friday night and taking the lives of a young couple and their 11-year-old son.
But they have tried.
Five times, the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles and a Clermont County judge have suspended the driver's license of 38-year-old Charles A. Gumbert of New Richmond. Four times Mr. Gumbert was convicted of drunken driving; once of fleeing police as they tried to pull him over.
Rodney L. Shannon, 32, his 31-year-old wife, Tammy, and their son, Christopher, died Friday night in their shattered pickup truck.
Mr. Gumbert hit them head-on at 8 p.m. as they drove along the twisting, rural road, about one mile north of their New Richmond home.
Suffering only minor injuries, Mr. Gumbert climbed from his own pickup and fled, said Ohio State Police Sgt. Jack Tibbs. Mr. Gumbert was arrested 90 minutes later at the nearby home of an acquaintance.
“We are associating this with alcohol, from his demeanor and face-to-face contact” when he was arrested, Sgt. Tibbs said. “It's obviously a problem. His past history shows that.
“You can only do so much,” he said. “You can't keep them from driving. ... If they're out, meaning not incarcerated or anything, they've got access to vehicles.”
Mr. Gumbert spent Friday night under guard at Clermont Mercy Hospital. He was taken directly to Clermont County jail after his release Saturday morning.
He is being held on a single count of aggravated vehicular homicide, but officials said they expect more charges to be added when he is arraigned Monday.
Mr. Gumbert refused to submit to a Breathalyzer or blood test Friday night, forcing officers to obtain a warrant for a blood sample. It was sent to a crime lab in Columbus and results are expected in about a week.
Mr. Gumbert was first convicted of drunken driving in 1983, when he was 22 years old, said Sgt. Tibbs. His license was suspended then and again after DUI convictions in 1988, 1989 and 1996. A judge took his license away again after a 1998 arrest for fleeing and eluding a police cruiser.
Grieving friends and relatives of the Shannon family gathered together Saturday.
Neighbors described Mr. Shannon, a mechanic at Beechmont Towing, as a hard-working man who loved his family. Mrs. Shannon looked after Chris and their two other children, and collected funds for various charities.
Tammy and Rodney Shannon had been together since at least 1985, according to neighbors at Hilltop Estates mobile home park. They were a loving couple, eager to lend a helping hand or a sympathetic ear to those in need.
Larry Grooms, superintendent of New Richmond Exempted Village Schools, where Christopher was a student, said teachers and counselors will do their best to blunt the Monday-morning announcement of his death.
“The school will reach out as best we can,” Mr. Grooms said. “We'll have extra counselors in school Monday to provide (students) with some comfort and try to help them make some sense out of it.”
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