Plea deal quashed in crash fatal to 2

LOCKPORT â€" The families of two teenagers killed in a Ransomville car crash quashed a defense effort Tuesday to win a plea deal that could have seen the driver serve as little as 16 months in prison.

Parents of the victims said after a 40-minute meeting with Niagara County District Attorney Michael J. Violante and Deputy District Attorney Theodore A. Brenner that they had been promised that the plea offer to John O. Schmitz Jr. won’t be softened without their consent.

Schmitz, 19, of Porter Center Road, is under indictment on two counts of second-degree manslaughter, a charge that requires a jury to find that his conduct was reckless and that he knew that death might result from it.

Back-seat passengers Jeremy Campbell, 19, of Youngstown, and Taylor Messing, 17, of Niagara Falls, died in the crash. Two other passengers, one in the front and one in the back, survived.

Kat Messing, Taylor’s mother; and Cindy Barnes and Doug Smith, who are Jeremy Campbell’s parents, said prosecutors informed them that Schmitz’s attorney, armed with a new crash report, was seeking a chance for Schmitz to plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide, a Class E felony with a maximum sentence of 1x to four years in prison â€" considerably less than a previous plea offer.

Messing said Violante and Brenner were not trying to sell them on the lower plea.

“The defense wanted an ‘E’; it was totally up to us,” Messing said.

“I think trying to say John Schmitz was driving at 75 mph was a joke.”

“I don’t think [the Class E charge] is justifiable for what happened to our children,” Messing said.

“They don’t get to have their cake and eat it this time,” Smith said.

Smith said the families already had agreed to let Brenner offer the Class D felony pleas instead of going to trial on the original indictment, which involves two counts that could bring consecutive sentences of as long as 15 years each.

“I think they’re just playing around with it, just throwing the ball back and forth,” Barnes said.

Defense attorney Sunil Bakshi said an accident investigation report from a Clarence firm he hired resulted in a finding that Schmitz’s car was traveling no more than 75 mph when it ran off Youngstown- Lockport Road on Sept. 25 and struck several trees.

“I guess it would be up to a jury to decide if that’s reckless,” Bakshi said.

But Messing said a Niagara County Sheriff’s Office accident investigation concluded that Schmitz’s Chrysler Concorde was traveling 113 mph at the time of impact and might have been going as fast as 120 mph. The posted speed was 55 mph.

Bakshi said he would talk with Schmitz about whether he is interested in the original plea offer Brenner announced in court May 23 â€" two counts of attempted second-degree manslaughter, each of which would carry maximum sentences of 2x to seven years. The sentences for the two counts could be consecutive but wouldn’t have to be, Bakshi said.

The accident occurred at 12:30 p. m. as Schmitz swerved to avoid a car ahead of him that was stopped in traffic, waiting to make a left turn into a driveway.

Investigators ruled out alcohol or drugs as factors, but they did charge him with speeding and having inadequate brakes.

The case has been rescheduled for July 25. Brenner said the case can’t go to trial until at least January, because a key police witness, Town of Niagara Patrolman Gary Beatty, is on military duty in Afghanistan until then.

The new court date is the day before Messing, a member of the Army National Guard, leaves for military training prior to an overseas deployment of her own. She has said she wanted the case settled before leaving the country.

“I was one of the two who got into the vehicle [after the crash]. I had belongings of two people to recover. Personally, I’m surprised anybody survived,” Messing said, adding that one of the survivors was Taylor’s second cousin.

tprohaska@buffnews.comnull