In DWI death, student told: Do service work, stop driving

RALEIGH -- A former N.C. State University student who ran over and killed a bicyclist as he drove home drunk from class on his 21st birthday will not be able to drink or drive for three years, but avoided prison.

Brian Anthony Reid, of Graham, pleaded guilty Thursday to felony death by vehicle and impaired driving after he ran over 60-year-old Nancy Leidy just before 11 a.m. April 23. Leidy was struck as she pedaled down a side street near the university campus where she frequently volunteered to teach in the entomology department.

Her widower, retired NCSU professor Ross Leidy, asked Wake Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens to be lenient in his sentencing of Reid.

"To be honest with you, part of me wants this kid to go to jail," Leidy told Stephens. "But, your honor, I don't know what that will do."

Reid, an engineering major who was in the university's Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, had been out drinking the night before the accident to celebrate his 21st birthday, a milestone allowing him to legally drink. He was driven home by friends and slept for a few hours before waking and driving to class, said Rusty DeMent, his defense attorney. A police officer took a Breathalyzer reading after the accident of 0.12, said Wake assistant district attorney Jeff Cruden. It is illegal to drive with a level of 0.08 or above.

'You have become a teetotaler'

In exchange for Reid's guilty plea, Stephens structured a punishment of his own. He waived a two- to three-year prison sentence and put Reid, who has no criminal record, on probation for three years. During that time, Reid was ordered not to drive or drink alcohol. And, he must perform 400 hours of community service, including 100 visits to local high schools to talk about the dangers of drunken driving.

"If you consume alcohol, the sentence will be activated," Stephens said. "You have become a teetotaler."

Reid will also have to spend five weekends in either the Wake or Alamance county jail and pay more than $10,000 in restitution for medical and funeral costs. His hometown is in Alamance County.

Stephens told him the punishment was not harsher, in part, because of Ross Leidy's request for leniency.

Reid was asked by Stephens how he ended up in a criminal courtroom, despite growing up with a close family, good schooling and opportunities.

"It comes down to myself making a bad judgment call," Reid said before receiving his sentence. Hoping to avoid jail time, he added, "Why should I be just another statistic?"

Stephens responded, "The question is, why shouldn't you be just another statistic?"

His lawyer submitted a notebook filled with 50 to 60 letters from family, friends, church members and fellow fraternity brothers of Phi Kappa Tau. Reid is now taking classes at Alamance Community College. He had hoped to become a Navy pilot, but that may be impossible with the felony conviction, DeMent said.

Leidy, who taught in NCSU's toxicology department, took time Thursday to describe his wife. The couple met in 1970 at Auburn University, where he received his doctorate and she was a recent graduate. They married in 1971 and moved to Raleigh so he could teach at NCSU, a professorship he held for 31 years until his retirement.

He said she was caring and compassionate, the type of woman that threw herself wholeheartedly into projects. When Nancy Leidy decided in 1996 that she wanted to enter jams, jellies and baked goods in State Fair contests, she ended up winning more than 100 ribbons in the next six years, including two Best in Shows, her husband said.

In 2001, when Nancy Leidy found that she was of Irish heritage, she began learning Irish Gaelic, eventually becoming fluent. She also enrolled at a university in Ireland, where she spent summers studying the language.

She became so close to Ross Leidy's students over the years that that many flew in from all over the country to attend her funeral, her husband said.

"A lot of my graduate students considered her their surrogate mother," Ross Leidy said.

Since his wife's death, Ross Leidy has found himself the sole caretaker of her parents, ages 98 and 95. He spent the past few months since her death moving them into retirement homes in Alabama.

"Nancy and I were a team, we were lovers, we were companions," Leidy said.