Wapak man who suffered stroke while driving to serve jail time
Mar. 14—WAPAKONETA — A 71-year-old Wapakoneta man who caused a fatal car crash when he suffered a stroke while driving last February will spend seven days in jail.
David H. Lavallee pleaded no contest to a single count of vehicular manslaughter, a second-degree misdemeanor, in Auglaize County Municipal Court Friday for his role in causing a five-car crash that killed Joseph Ingram.
Prosecutors dismissed one count of aggravated vehicular homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor, in exchange for Lavallee's no contest plea.
Defense attorney Rafael Villegas called it a "complicated" and "tragic" situation as he alleged his client suffered a stroke shortly before the crash.
Assistant Prosecutor Laia Zink agreed the case is "difficult," but asked the court to "balance" those considerations against Ingram's death and Lavallee's speed at the time of the crash — nearly twice the posted speed limit.
The five-car crash occurred on Bellefontaine Street in Wapakoneta at the Interstate 75 overpass on Feb. 26, 2024.
A crash report from the Wapakoneta Police Department alleges Lavallee was traveling westbound on Bellefontaine Street when his 2008 Cadillac sideswiped another vehicle.
Lavallee reportedly then failed to stop for a traffic signal at the intersection of Bellefontaine Street and Apollo Drive, striking the rear of a vehicle driven by Joseph Ingram, who succumbed to his injuries.
Ingram's vehicle pushed into the rear of another vehicle, which in turn struck another car.
Lavallee suffered no injuries, but his wife and an occupant from another vehicle were transported to local hospitals.
Tricia Lavallee told the court she unbuckled her seatbelt and tried to turn off the car's engine when she noticed her husband unconscious behind the wheel, but Lavallee's foot was on the accelerator.
Lavallee is "incredibly remorseful," Villegas said as he asked the court to sentence Lavallee to house arrest in lieu of jail so Lavallee can monitor his health and watch after his wife, who broke both her arms and legs in the crash and now struggles to sit or walk.
Zink reduced her sentencing recommendation from 30 days to one week of jail time followed by house arrest at the request of Ingram's family. She asked the court to suspend Lavallee's license for one year as well.
Judge Andrew Augsburger called the case a "tremendous tragedy," but said he could not ignore Lavallee's speed — almost double the posted speed limit at the time of the crash. "I have to look at all of the facts," he said.
Augsburger sentenced Lavallee to seven days in the Auglaize County Correctional Institution followed by three weeks of house arrest and one year of unsupervised community control.
Lavallee's sentence includes a 90-day suspended jail term if he violates probation, as well as a $250 fine and one-year suspension of his driver's license.
A civil lawsuit is pending to determine Lavallee's restitution to Ingram's family.
Featured Local Savings
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Man taken into custody following wrong-way pursuit on I-264 in Virginia Beach
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — An unidentified man has been taken into custody following a pursuit with Virginia State Police Sunday night. According to state police, troopers attempted to stop a dark blue Cadillac at 9 p.m. in the westbound lanes of Interstate 264 for reckless driving. The driver refused to stop, causing a traffic pursuit to begin. During the pursuit, the Cadillac exited the interstate at Birdneck Road and entered the city of Virginia Beach, where the driver traveled into the opposite travel lanes against the flow of traffic. The driver continued traveling in the wrong direction until troopers struck the vehicle at the off ramp of I-264 east, disabling the vehicle. Police said the driver barricaded himself in the vehicle and refused to exit. Virginia Beach Police, K-9 and tactical units assisted with the barricade. Shortly after, the unknown male driver was taken into custody without incident. Both east and west lanes were shut down on I-264 while police investigated. Traffic was detoured to Laskin Road. All lanes have since reopened. The driver had no positive identification and refused to identify himself. He has been taken to Virginia Beach city jail to have fingerprints scanned for identification. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
She stopped at the grocery store before picking up her kids. She was never seen alive again
She stopped at the grocery store before picking up her kids. She was never seen alive again More than 30 years after after Carmen Gayheart was kidnapped in broad daylight, raped and murdered, one of her killers is set to be executed in Florida on Tuesday. USA TODAY is remembering her life. Brick by brick, Carmen and Ricky Gayheart watched as their dream home took shape on a 5-acre piece of heaven in northern Florida. They chose the tiny town of Fort White to raise their family and escape the crime in South Florida. The high school sweethearts spent two years living in a trailer on the wooded property as they worked on the house and finally moved in with their 3-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. Once the home was finished, the young couple hung a sign outside: "Welcome to the Gayheart Corral." Then on April 27, 1994, the stuff of nightmares befell the Gayhearts. Carmen, who was just 23, was raped and murdered after two North Carolina prison escapees kidnapped her while she was on a grocery store run in the middle of the day and fled. Carmen's family was among dozens who searched for any sign of her for five days before sheriff's deputies found her brutalized body off a remote dirt road. Her husband and children moved out of the dream home soon after. "It was a beautiful house and she didn't even get a chance to enjoy it," her sister, Maria David, told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview. "She had just moved in and she was excited. She couldn't wait for us to see it." David added: "I was so happy for her." Now more than 30 years later, Carmen's family is preparing to close at least one chapter of their tragic story as one of her killers, Anthony Wainwright, is executed in Florida on Tuesday. As U.S. executions ramp up this year, USA TODAY is revisiting the criminal cases that led to the tragic deaths of victims and the ongoing trauma for their families and communities. What happened to Carmen Gayheart? On April 24, 1994, Anthony Wainwright and Richard Hamilton escaped from prison in Newport, North Carolina. Wainwright was serving 10 years for breaking and entering, Hamilton 25 years for armed robbery. The men stole a Cadillac and guns and headed south. Three days and nearly 600 miles later, Wainwright and Hamilton spotted a pretty brunette walking into a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Lake City, Florida. It was Carmen Gayheart. She had just finished up a class at nursing school and was stopping at the store on her way to pick up her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son from daycare. Carmen's arms were full of groceries when the men attacked her at gunpoint in the parking lot and shoved her into her blue Bronco. Though it was broad daylight, no one is believed to have witnessed her abduction. Carmen's disappearance set off a frantic search, during which hundreds of volunteers scoured the area for any sign of her. Her body was found five days later. She had been raped and shot twice in the back of the head. She was still wearing a shirt in her favorite color: pink. Wainwright and Hamilton were captured the next day following a shootout with police in Brookhaven, Mississippi, about 520 miles west of the murder scene. The men, who both survived gunshot wounds, had been driving Carmen's Bronco. Wainwright initially told police that he raped Carmen and that Hamilton killed her. He now denies doing either, though he says he was there, according to his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hunt. Both men were convicted and sentenced to death. Hamilton died in 2023 of natural causes at the age of 59. Wainwright, 54, is set to be executed on Tuesday by lethal injection about an hour before Alabama executes Greg Hunt by nitrogen gas for the 1988 beating death of a woman he had been dating for a month named Karen Lane. Carmen Gayheart: animal lover, nursing student, doting mother Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Carmen and Maria Tortora were sisters and best friends. As the oldest, Maria was always looking out for Carmen, whom she described as "beautiful inside and out." Carmen loved animals and respected all creatures so much, that she wouldn't even kill a cockroach, her sister told USA TODAY. "She would catch the bug and take it out. I am so serious," said Maria, whose last name is now David. "She would find a way to capture it safely, not hurt it in any way shape or form. She was one of a kind that's for sure." The sisters grew up around the family of Carmen's future husband, Ricky Gayheart, but the couple didn't experience a spark until high school, David said. "We were walking around campus and he started following us around," the 56-year-old West Palm Beach resident recalled. "He said to her, 'I want you to come with me and take a ride in my truck.' And I was like, 'What? She's not going anywhere without me.' I was very protective over her." The young couple soon fell in love and had their first baby when Carmen was 18. They married before the birth of their son two years later. Carmen loved being a mom so much she was planning on a third baby, David said. She had also returned to school to become a nurse and loved taking care of their dogs, cats and one horse. "She loved animals, she loved people, she loved her children, she loved her husband," David said. "She was building something beautiful." Ricky Gayheart, who did not respond to an interview request for this story, previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that his wife's murder shattered him. "I loved her very much," he said through tears in an interview just a couple weeks after the murder. "We moved up here to get away from everything down there. We're in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the woods . . . It can happen anywhere. It goes to show you." He added: "She didn't have a mean bone in her body. She's too good for this world." Witnessing a killer's execution David plans on being front and center at Wainwright's execution for "accountability" and because her heartbroken parents can't. Her father died in 2013 and her mother died in 2023. Her mother, Joanne Tortora, told WPBF-TV in 2014 that she had been waiting for justice for 20 years after Carmen's murder. "I have friends who say, 'Oh, you can't move on with your life until you forgive them,' and it's just not going to happen," she said of Wainwright and Hamilton. "I can't find it in my heart. I feel it's a betrayal to my daughter. No, they deserve everything they get and more." David said that her emotions have been running high as she relives terrible memories leading up to the execution and that it's been difficult seeing Wainwright's fiancée post photos on Facebook of the two of them smiling and embracing. "He's had 31 years breathing, phone calls, letters, all of that," she said. "Carmen didn't have 31 seconds." Not only were Carmen's children deprived of their mother but now her son Chad is a father to a 9-year-old daughter named Gabriela, named after her slain grandmother's middle name. Carmen's daughter Jessica also married and is a world traveler in the medical field. To help keep Carmen's memory alive, David started a Facebook page and regularly posts about her sister. "She was here, she was loved, she deserves to be remembered, she mattered," she said. David and her family are holding a prayer vigil outside for Gayheart outside the Florida State Prison in Raiford. The vigil will be streamed live here on Tuesday evening, just before David goes inside to watch Wainwright die. "I look a lot like my sister and I'm hoping that he sees a glimpse of Carmen one more time before he goes to where he's going," she said. "It is pretty intimidating to be in the same room with the people that killed your sister but I feel like the strength will be there and it's something I really have to do."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Elkhart woman accused in vehicle theft from storage unit
GOSHEN — A woman who allegedly stole a car from a storage unit in Elkhart was in court on Wednesday to face charges. On Wednesday, Melisa Menzies had a pretrial conference in Elkhart County Superior Court 3. According to a probable cause affidavit, a man told police on Jan. 30 that when he got to All Secure Self-Storage on Southview Drive in Elkhart, his Cadillac that normally sat in front of his storage unit was missing. Police said they found the vehicle in front of Melisa Menzies' home on Best Avenue in Elkhart. Menzies told police that a man had sold her the Cadillac and showed the title to police, including a signature from the owner, a probable cause affidavit reads. But the owner claimed that he did not sell Menzies his car, and showed that the signature was forged, the affidavit reads. Menzies was charged with one count of auto theft, a Level 6 felony. On Wednesday, dates for her case were confirmed as July 30 for the pretrial conference and Aug. 11 for the jury trial.
