Politics & Government

Local High-Profile DUI Fatalities Attract Attention

Grant funding has been made available to help prosecute the caseload of local DUI cases.

In 2011, the number of victims killed by alleged drunken or drugged drivers in Southwest Riverside County swelled, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

To help prosecute these cases, this week the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved a $360,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The funding provides for a specialized team to investigate and prosecute the felony DUI with injury and DUI-related vehicular homicide cases out of the DA’s Southwest Riverside Office, according to a news release from the office.

Of the 2011 cases for Southwest Riverside, some suspects have pleaded not guilty and their cases are still pending. Others have been convicted and sentenced. Here’s a look at some of these high-profile cases:

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  • L when he was struck and killed by a drunk driver. and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
  • Temecula resident Harry Shane Scholes, 55, was charged with murder, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while allegedly driving under the influence of controlled substances and driving on a suspended or revoked license. The charges came after he allegedly struck and killed 87-year-old Charlotte Boyce on July 18 in Temecula while she was walking her dog. Scholes is a repeat DUI offender, according to court records. He has pleaded not guilty in the killing death of Boyce and is due back in court later this month.
  • Richard Michael Proger, 40, faces a maximum 10-year sentence for allegedly driving while under the influence and causing a July 6 crash that killed Richard "Dick" Johnson, 84, of La Cresta. That crash occurred on Clinton Keith Road near the Bear Creek Fire Station.
  • Temecula resident Karen Faye Honeycutt, 41, has been convicted of DUI gross vehicular manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced next month for the Jan. 26, 2011 crash that killed her 9-year-old daughter and injured her surviving children. Honeycutt had four DUI convictions on her record before the crash, according to court records.
  • A day before her 36th birthday, the driver in a solo-vehicle May 1 crash killed her 31-year-old Murrieta passenger, Michael Leroy Keeler, when she careened off the road on Guava Street and Adams Avenue in Murrieta. Toxicology tests ordered by the Murrieta Police Department revealed that Nicole Elyce Campbell's blood alcohol content was “well above the legal limit to drive a vehicle.” She was arrested May 19 by Murrieta police traffic investigators and she eventually pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter.
  • Michael Gene Kidd, 22, of Menifee received a six-year sentence last August for an alcohol-fueled crash in Menifee that killed Edmond James Mouton Sr., 58, of Perris.
  • Hemet resident Shane Stanscheit, 26, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and hit-and-run with death or injury for the Feb. 23 crash he caused that killed Luciano Cervantes, 44, and Chris Caldwell, 26, both of Hemet. Stanscheit is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
  • Charles Thomas Durnin of San Jacinto will go to trial this year after being charged with the murder of 57-year-old Mike Wayne Morgan of Hemet. Durnin was allegedly being chased by police last March when he slammed the Ford F-150 truck he was driving into Morgan’s car. During the investigation, police reported finding methamphetamine and assault rifles in the pickup. Durnin was 21 at the time of the crash. According to court records, there are no DUI charges against him.


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