Steidel enters Alford plea

STAUNTON — A hesitant judge convicted a Waynesboro teen of aggravated DUI manslaughter Monday, but called a plea agreement’s suggested maximum sentence of two years in prison “rather lenient.”

By entering an Alford plea, Jason M. Steidel, 19, acknowledged that evidence against him was strong enough to convict while not admitting his guilt in a Dec. 12, 2007, crash that killed passenger and friend Timothy Moran, 19, Crimora.

State police estimate Steidel’s 2002 Ford Mustang GT was traveling between 113 and 128 mph on Route 612 near Crimora when it went off the right side of the road on a slight curve.

The car plowed through two fences, scraped several cedar trees, went airborne “like a pole vault,” hit another tree 8 feet above the ground and came to rest 625 feet from the road, said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robin Boylan.

Steidel’s blood-alcohol content was 0.07 percent, according to authorities. The legal limit for adults is .08 percent. Under Virginia’s zero-tolerance laws, a driver younger than 21 can be charged with drunken driving with a blood-alcohol content of .02 percent or higher.

Steidel’s plea closes one part of the frequently continued case that presented a number of evidence problems for Boylan. Among them: the death of witness Zachary Carpenter, who had been at the center of a dispute about whether Steidel was driving.

That dispute and other previously unreleased information came out in court Monday when Judge Charles H. Smith Jr. asked attorneys about the sentence.

“It seems to be a rather lenient recommendation,” Smith said.

Boylan told the judge that Carpenter’s death, which Waynesboro police ruled an apparent suicide, might be indirectly attributable to the stress he felt after the crash. The other surviving passenger, Elizabeth Fogle, no longer recalls who was driving that night, Boylan said.

Defense attorney David Smith repeatedly told the judge the plea agreement was in Steidel’s best interest, but raised doubts about the prosecution’s case. Blood found on the car’s console did not match that of Steidel, which could indicate he was not in a front seat, the defense attorney said.

There was also evidence Steidel came into contact with wood — a fact at odds with evidence the car scraped trees on its passenger side.

The judge paused in silence for nearly 30 seconds after hearing from the defense. Boylan spoke up again.

“I can tell that the court is troubled about this,” Boylan said, before describing how the victim’s relatives support the sentence.

Aggravated involuntary DUI manslaughter carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year. Pending a pre-sentence report, Steidel could serve that minimum. In February, an Augusta County jury reduced the same charge against a Staunton man from aggravated to involuntary DUI manslaughter and sentenced him to four months in prison. Prosecutors in that case called the sentence “way out of line.”

In court Monday, Boylan also addressed Steidel’s credibility. State police reported that the teen told them a fifth person, a man, was driving. No other passengers mentioned this.

“Later searches failed to locate this phantom fifth person,” Boylan said.

Yet to be determined in court is the role Steidel’s parents had in allegedly pressuring Carpenter into signing a statement identifying Fogle as the driver. Carpenter later returned to a magistrate to claim Emil and Gloria Steidel pressured him into signing the statement.

Gloria Steidel is scheduled for a trial in July on a charge of inducing another to commit perjury. Emil Steidel has missed several hearings, and court records list him as a fugitive. Both have denied pressuring Carpenter.

Jason Steidel will begin his sentence Friday by reporting to Middle River Regional Jail.