From the archives: Families plead for justice, mercy after fatal 2003 drunk driving accident

This story was originally published April 24, 2004.

Larry Robert Veeder admitted Friday that he caused the Nov. 1, 2003, accident in West Raleigh that killed six pedestrians and injured two others. Punishment lay ahead. But Superior Court Judge James C. Spencer Jr. first had to balance justice with mercy for an ordinary man who did a terrible thing.

Veeder, 32, pleaded guilty to six counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury in the worst traffic accident in Wake County since 1982.

The proceeding Friday in Wake County Superior Court filled the barnlike Courtroom 3A with friends and relatives of the dead and maimed. A contingent in support for Veeder took up two rows.

Some people in court Friday would tell Spencer that only a severe penalty would send the right message. Others hoped the judge would see that Veeder was racked with remorse.

To begin, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden told Spencer that Veeder, a handyman for a company that did painting and Sheetrock work, spent most of the day drinking, first at two bars along Hillsborough Street across from N.C. State University. Then he drove a friend in his employer’s van to a Cary strip club. About 8:30 p.m., Veeder got back into the van and headed east to Raleigh on Chapel Hill Road.

The accident at the intersection with Nowell Road, just west of the State Fairgrounds, occurred on a moonlit night just after the N.C. State Wolfpack football team had won at home.

Baron Fulk, a trainer with the team, drove his sport utility vehicle to the intersection on Nowell Road and, police said, blew through the stop sign to make a right turn onto Chapel Hill Road. He collided with an SUV driven by Martha Peacock, sending it into a ditch. Fulk’s vehicle came to rest in the eastbound lane of Chapel Hill Road.

Immediately, people stopped to help. They were standing in the eastbound lane tending to Fulk as Veeder approached in his employer’s van at the speed limit of 45 mph, Cruden said.

Witnesses said later that Veeder got out of the van and yelled, “What have I done? What have I done?” He freely acknowledged to police that he was driving the van and that he was drunk. A blood test two hours later registered 0.18, more than twice the legal limit.

With that, Cruden told the judge that the families wanted to speak. Spencer agreed, and for almost two hours, relatives of the victims came to a lectern to hold up photographs, read speeches or speak from the heart. Every one said they knew Veeder was not a criminal. But they raged against his choices that led to their pain.

Phillip and Terrie Myers of Carver, Minn., lost their only son, Nolan, 18, a student at Campbell University. The family played a videotape titled, “Dude!!! It’s Nolan!!!” that featured a towheaded toddler dancing, then a handsome teenager hammering on drums.

Robert and Gene-Marie Alfaro were visiting their twin sons, freshmen at NCSU. In court, Robert’s brother, Michael, said the twins and the couple’s younger son chose not to be present. He held up a photograph and said, “This is a picture of the last summer vacation they will take with their parents.”

Christopher Clemons did not live far from the intersection, and when he heard the first crash, he jumped on his bicycle to go help. His niece, Shauna Clemons, passed to Spencer a plastic binder with photographs of Clemons manning a huge grill, fork in hand, and of his blue flower-draped casket.

“My 2-year-old son looks at pictures and asks, ‘Where’s my Uncle Chris?’ “ she said. She fell forward over the lectern and sobbed.

Around Mandy Tutor’s neck on a chain hung her husband’s fat gold wedding band. The couple’s child was 6 months old when Brian Tutor died. Mandy said when her son asks for Daddy, she can only tell him that he is not coming home.

Dennis Bowes had been tailgating with Brian Tutor at the Wolfpack game. Bowes and his girlfriend of seven years, Lauren Murphy, owned a house in Cary and sometimes, Murphy said, Bowes would call home just to talk to their dog.

With tears rolling down her face, Murphy said, “We thought we had our whole lives together.”

Finally, the accident’s two survivors, friends of Nolan Myers, came forward.

One, tall and lanky Walter Manning, on crutches, has undergone 15 operations to repair the shattered bones in his body. His medical bills now exceed $500,000. With Manning in court was the other survivor, his best friend since junior high, Coy Woolard.

Manning’s mother, Cindy McCullough, unfolded a huge photograph of Walter’s injured leg and showed it to Veeder, who looked at it.

What’s fair

Veeder faced up to 17 years in prison.

Spencer asked Cruden to recommend a length for the sentence, but the prosecutor said he would leave that to the judge; instead, he reminisced about his 5-year-old son getting a hit in T-ball the night before and how, amid his own fatherly happiness and pride, he remembered that Phillip Myers had lost his son.

Cruden suddenly stopped speaking. He took a big swallow of water, recovered himself and said, “I don’t know what [the punishment] is, but I know it must be severe.”

Spencer turned to the defense table and invited Raleigh lawyer Rick Gammon to speak for Veeder.

Reading from a file of more than 200 letters and e-mail messages sent in support, Gammon pleaded for Spencer to temper justice with mercy, paraphrasing a line from “The Merchant of Venice:” “If we all got what we deserve, none of us would have any salvation.”

Hard decision

Then Spencer gave Veeder a chance to address the court. Veeder, in a navy blue sport coat and khakis, rose to his feet. He struggled for his voice. He wiped his eyes. He spoke directly to the judge. He could not turn around to face the families.

“I’m so, so sorry,” he said as the tears fell. “All these people that were gathered there, they were doing something good. They were there trying to help someone. I love people like that. If I could trade places with one of those people, I would. I’m sorry to everybody.”

The time for judgment arrived. Spencer said he wrestled to fit the punishment to the crime, and to the criminal. He noted that Veeder‘s remorse was genuine.

Still, “I believe a substantial punishment is called for in these cases,” and the judge sent Veeder to prison for 8 1/2 years to almost 11 years. Veeder will be at least 40 when he finishes his term.

“You will still be a relatively young man when you complete your sentence,” the judge counseled Veeder. “I urge you to rejoin the community as a lawful citizen at that time. Make your life count for something.”

Sheriff’s deputies surrounded Veeder and took him away.

When the hearing ended, the families scattered. In Courtroom 3A, Spencer shed his judicial robe and got ready to go home to Burlington. He had weighed the plea for justice and had rendered the deeds of mercy. But his actions would not soon erase the images and words poured out before him Friday.

“Some cases,” he said, “are hard.”

Staff writer Oren Dorell contributed to this report.