(The following story by Steve Meyer appeared on the Des Moines Register website on January 16.)
TOLEDO, Iowa — A Tama County jury found a Des Moines man not guilty Thursday of three charges of vehicular homicide.
On June 22, 2002, a van Gary Lee Butler was driving crossed the center line and into the path of six oncoming motorcyclists. Arlen Pickering, 53, of Story City, Douglas Sampson, 51, of Ames, and Ross Holland, 57, of Boone were killed.
Three other men were injured in the accident, which happened a mile west of the intersection of Iowa Highway 21 and U.S. Highway 30, east of Tama.
Testimony in the trial centered on Butler’s condition at the time of the accident.
Butler left for an assignment to haul railroad workers for Armadillo Express on June 21 after he got up at 10 a.m. According to company policy, Butler should have stopped driving at 9:30 a.m. on June 22. Butler was in Lowden, where he decided to drive back to his home in Des Moines.
Tama County Attorney Brent Heeren stated that Butler disregarded company rules because he was too tired to drive. “He willfully disregarded the safety of persons and property when he decided to drive while he was tired,” said Heeren.
But Butler’s attorney, Keith Rigg of Des Moines, said Butler had been able to get sufficient rest that day.
“Even though he was tired, he was still in control. . . . All you have is that he got two feet over the center line at exactly the wrong time,” Rigg said.
The accident investigation determined that no drugs or alcohol were involved.
Butler did not testify.
Charles Sampson, Douglas Sampson’s uncle, said he was disappointed with the verdict.
“My God, what’s the matter with those people? When you cross the line . . . and you wipe out three people and injure three others,” you don’t deserve a not-guilty verdict, Charles Sampson said.
One of the injured motorcyclists, James Olson, 64, of Ames, cracked his skull, broke several bones and was unconscious for 31/2 months after the accident. He said he believes Thursday’s verdict was fair, adding that “community service would have been more appropriate” than a jail sentence.
The trial began Monday. The jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon.
Butler also had faced two counts of serious injury by a vehicle and three counts of aggravated involuntary manslaughter, which were dismissed during the trial.