Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990 TAG: 9005160191
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The accident prompted Community Hospital's infant car-seat loan program. Daniel Patrick Skaggs, the 14-month-old son of Dennis and Linda Lou Skaggs, was sitting in a child restraint seat and survived the crash with only hairline fractures in both legs. Linda Lou Skaggs was a nurse at the hospital.
Erickson, who had been convicted of 11 other previous traffic violations including drunken driving, was also sentenced to a year in prison for possession of methamphetamine during the fatal accident.
He spent just more than four years in prison and was paroled in July 1988.
Tuesday, Erickson, 29, pleaded no contest in Roanoke County Circuit Court to driving last fall even though he had been adjudicated a habitual offender.
In April 1986, while Erickson was in prison, a Botetourt County judge took his driver's license for 10 years after determining that Erickson's driving record was bad enough.
Roanoke County Circuit Judge Kenneth Trabue convicted Erickson on Tuesday and ordered that a background report be prepared prior to sentencing July 10. Erickson faces up to five years in prison and a mandatory sentence of one year.
Erickson also faces having to serve about 15 years of his 20-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the Skaggses' deaths if the Virginia Parole Board chooses to revoke that time, according to parole officials in Roanoke.
Randy Leach, Roanoke County chief assistant commonwealth's attorney, summarized the evidence against Erickson on Tuesday:
County Deputy T.D. Valentine stopped Erickson because he was erratically driving a 1977 pickup truck on the Blue Ridge Parkway about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 6, Leach said.
Erickson had crossed the center line four times in an eighth of a mile, Leach said.
When Valentine asked to see Erickson's driver's license, Erickson told him it was suspended, Leach said. Erickson also told the officer he was driving erratically because he was sick, he said.
Valentine charged Erickson with the misdemeanor of driving on a suspended license. But a further check showed that Erickson was a habitual offender, Leach said.
Prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge and Erickson was indicted for the felony.
Leach said there was no indication that Erickson had been using alcohol the night Valentine stopped him.
When Erickson pleaded guilty to possession of amphetamines after the fatal accident, he told Bedford County Circuit Judge William Sweeney that he had resolved "to stay away from alcohol. It has caused me nothing but trouble. I'm sorry. . . . But there's no way I can bring Mr. and Mrs. Skaggs back by saying I'm sorry."
Erickson did not speak in court Tuesday, other than to answer questions from the judge about whether he had freely decided to plead no contest.
Bob Rider, Erickson's attorney, said he had been unable to find the witness who would have testified about why his client was driving. He asked Trabue if the witness could testify at the July sentencing hearing if he could be located. Trabue granted the request.
Leach said after the trial that he understood the witness would testify that he had been ill and Erickson was coming to pick him up.
Dennis Skaggs, 28, and his wife, Linda Lou, 33, were killed July 3, 1983, when a station wagon driven by Erickson crashed into their Volkswagen van on Virginia 24 east of Stewartsville. Linda Lou Skaggs was nine months pregnant.
Erickson's blood-alcohol content, taken about an hour after the crash, was 0.0988 percent - lower than the 0.10 percent level at which a driver is presumed legally drunk.
Erickson had completed a Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program class shortly before the crash. He had a string of previous traffic violations.
The first violation occurred in 1977, the year after Erickson received his driver's license.
A Roanoke Circuit Court judge upheld three other driving convictions against Erickson several months after he was convicted in the Skaggses' deaths. Those included leaving the scene of an accident, drunken driving and driving with a suspended license.
by CNB