This is a follow up to the post I wrote about Sarah-Dian Heinenman a little over a year ago. I follow a lot of stories about children, but this one is especially close to my heart. Baylee is friends with Sarah-Dian’s older sister, Nick has tutored in Mrs. Heineman’s classroom, and my cousin’s daughter had been close friends with Sarah-Dian since they were babies. I’m relieved that Ronald Smith has been found guilty, and hope that this will help the Heineman family find at least a small amount of closure. RIP, Sarah-Dian.
Jury deliberates 3 hours in DUI manslaughter case
PUNTA GORDA — Jurors found Ronald Judson Smith guilty of the DUI manslaughter of a 7-year-old North Port girl and six other charges Tuesday evening at the Charlotte County Justice Center.
Smith, now 25, was convicted of driving under the influence of controlled substances on the night of Feb. 13, 2009 — when he drove his pickup through a red light in Port Charlotte and smashed into a red Mustang occupied by Rick Heineman and his two young daughters.
Sarah-Dian Heineman, 7, died 10 days later from injuries she suffered in the wreck. Her sister Madison, who is now 10, and father Rick were severely injured.
Family members and friends of the Heinemans embraced after the verdict was read Tuesday night. Smith, who was found guilty of trafficking in oxycodone, possession of Xanax without a prescription, DUI manslaughter, two counts of DUI with serious injury and two counts of DUI with property damage, could be sentenced up to 62 years in prison.
Smith was acquitted on a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.
The Heineman family declined to comment after the verdict was read.
Assistant State Attorney Ronald Charles Smith (no relation to the defendant) pointed out afterward that the verdict, ultimately, would not give the Heineman family closure.
“I asked them earlier if they would get any closure (with a guilty verdict), and the answer was ‘no,’” he said. “They’ve got to go on without Sarah. There are two people with continuing medical problems.”
“It’s not over for them,” prosecutor Smith added. “It’s over for Ronald Judson Smith, but not for (the Heinemans).”
The defendant, who has been out on $211,000 bond since August, is scheduled to be sentenced June 15.
His family also declined to speak after the verdict was read Tuesday night.
The Port Charlotte man is still charged with three other offenses stemming from the fatal crash, including refusal to submit to a DUI test-second offense and driving while license is suspended causing death. A pretrial conference on those charges also is slated for June 15.
Prosecutor Smith said the state agreed to sever those charges from trial because the offenses would be considered prejudicial toward the defendant.
The jurors — five men and one woman — deliberated as the sun set Tuesday.
And, coincidentally, dusk was a pointed reference during closing statements by attorneys on each side.
It was a setting sun — not a cocktail of drugs — that impaired Smith at the intersection of Toledo Blade Boulevard and State Road 776, defense attorney Kayo Morgan argued Tuesday during his closing statements.
Pointing to a photo taken exactly one year after the fatal crash at that same intersection, Morgan noted that the sun hindered the glow of either a green, red or yellow light of the traffic control device.
“Anybody who drives early in the morning or late in the afternoon has had it happen,” Morgan told jurors.
In his rebuttal, prosecutor Smith said the defense’s reference to a blinding, setting sun was an attempt to create “artificial confusion.”
The photo, taken at a different time and angle and with different weather conditions, is of no weight, the prosecutor added.
Five witnesses at the scene on the night of Feb. 13, 2009, testified that they could see the traffic light — and that traffic light was a “long-standing red light,” he said.
“The sun was a problem for one — one drugged driver,” the prosecutor said.
Key for the jury in deciding whether Smith was guilty of driving while impaired was the defendant’s behavior both at the scene of the wreck and at Fawcett Memorial Hospital.
Both prosecutor Smith and defense attorney Morgan interpreted that behavior differently.
“Ronald Judson Smith is a man with a drug problem, a very serious drug problem,” the prosecutor said.
Prosecutor Smith cited testimony from 14 witnesses at the scene of the wreck. The testimony included that of Charlotte County Sheriff’s deputy Martin Allen, who testified the defendant was “aloof and uncaring” as he sat in the back of a patrol car.
However, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kenneth Watson testified that later, as he transported the defendant from the hospital to jail, Smith expressed concern for the victims.
The prosecutor pointed out that some five hours had passed since the wreck.
“The power of the drugs has abated,” prosecutor Smith said. “After two doses of an anti-psychotic (medication), only then, after midnight, does the defendant have the normal concern for the victims.”
As jurors were deliberating late Tuesday afternoon and into the evening hours, Assistant State Attorneys Smith and Kathryn Shaw grabbed dinner with the Heineman family and their 20-plus supporters who attended some or all of the seven-day trial.
Thoughts of the trial dominated the diners, but prosecutor Smith said the family’s mood was “remarkable.”
“Rick Heineman said to me, ‘Everything is relative, and this is relatively unimportant’ in their lives,” the prosecutor said. “I thought that was a beautiful, healthy attitude. They wanted a guilty verdict. They believed the defendant was guilty. But they were going to accept whatever the jury’s verdict was.”
Staff Writer Greg Martin contributed to this report.
E-mail: kbaxter@sun-herald.com
By KATE BAXTER
Staff Writer
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Finally! I often think of this family and wonder how they are doing. My thoughts and prayers are with them.
I just heard from my cousin Janet ,Sarah`s Grandmother.Ronald Hudson Smith has been sentenced to 30YRS,and will be eligible for parole for 27yrs.
I`m 52,he will be my age when he sees the light of day.I`m satisfied knowing he will miss a lifetime of happiness.When he gets out ,his fondest memories will be of him and Bubba ,and the good-times they shared dropping the soap in prison………MARIO in Venice