Thursday, September 30, 1999
Driver who killed 3 accepts 12 years
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BATAVIA — Seven months after he drove drunk, killed a couple and their 11-year-old son, then fled, five-time DUI offender Charles Gumbert took responsibility.
The New Richmond man accepted a plea agreement in Clermont County Court whereby he will spend the next 12 years in prison.
Clermont County Prosecutor Donald White said Mr. Gumbert agreed to plead guilty to all three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, a third-degree felony.
In turn, the prosecutor's office agreed to the 12-year sentence, instead of the maximum 15-year term that Mr. Gumbert faced, the prosecutor said.
Mr. Gumbert was charged after the Feb. 26 accident in which he slammed head-on into a pickup truck carrying the Shannon family of Ohio Town ship.
The Shannons were all pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr. Gumbert, the 38-year-old lone survivor of the crash, walked away. His license had been suspended five times previously.
Rodney Shannon, 32; his wife, Tammy, 31; and their son, Christopher, were traveling south on Ohio 132 about a mile from their home when the crash occurred. They were on their way to buy groceries for a relative, then visit another relative who three months earlier had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.
Mr. Gumbert was arrested at the nearby home of an acquaintance 90 minutes later. A blood sample was taken from Mr. Gumbert under a search warrant after he refused to submit to a Breathalyzer alcohol test.
William A. Weathers contributed.
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