Defendant withdraws from plea in Route 3 crash case

A Spotsylvania man charged with killing four people last year in a head-on collision on Route 3 rejected a plea agreement and will face a jury trial next month.

Eugene T. Greene, 30, faces four felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, wounding in the commission of a felony, destruction of property and misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and operating an uninsured vehicle. He has a four-day trial set for May 4 at 9:30 a.m. in Circuit Court.

Under the agreement, prosecutors planned to amend the four involuntary manslaughter charges to reckless driving. The wounding charge would also be amended to reckless driving. The uninsured vehicle charge would remain.

In exchange, the destruction of property charge and another reckless driving charge would be indefinitely suspended.

Greene would also be expected to serve one day in jail each year for 10 years on March 22, the date of the accident. Circuit Court Judge Jack Berry accepted the guilty pleas, then later accepted the motion to withdraw them.

Because Greene withdrew from the agreement, the original charges remain in effect. Greene’s decision to withdraw from the agreement came at the close of a nearly 90-minute hearing Thursday afternoon.

Prosecutors plan to argue that Greene was sleep deprived and should not have been driving the night of the accident. They also planned to introduce the testimony of a sleep deprivation expert, Dr. Christopher Winter, to support their case. However, the state and county denied requests to fund the expert.

“An expert witness would have been required to sustain prosecution,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Dale Durrer said. “Many people drive tired, many people have pushed envelope.” However, Berry disagreed with Durrer’s argument that the court had the power to impose a one-day-a-year sentence spread over a decade.

“What this agreement does is tell the court it has no choice in the matter,” said Berry. “This is an agreement that is by all accounts, is somewhat unusual.” Berry then advised Greene to discuss the implications of the plea further with his attorney, John Mell, before taking a 10 minute recess.

Greene withdrew his pleas when the judge returned to the bench. Mell then moved to have the May trial date continued, but Berry denied that request.

The crash occurred around 2:50 a.m. about one-tenth of a mile east of Clay Hill Road. Police say Greene’s eastbound Chevy Tahoe collided with a westbound Toyota Corolla driven by Tyler S. Harlow, 20, of Ruckersville. Harlow and three passengers — Joseph L. Sahnow, 20, of Ruckersville, Tianna V. Jones, 19, of Stanardsville, and James B. Cook, 21, of Marshfield, Vt. — died at the scene. A fifth passenger, 27-year-old Fredericksburg resident Howard J. Steiniger, survived.

At the start of the hearing, Durrer told the court that several witnesses will testify regarding what they encountered at the scene.

Durrer said nearby residents heard the crash and called for help. Moments later, two passing motorists came upon the scene and they stopped to help. One of them found Greene unconscious behind the wheel of his wrecked SUV. They used his cell phone to contact Greene’s family to notify them of the accident. The prosecution also submitted 15 police photos of the crash scene, Greene’s cell phone records and medical reports as evidence.

In addition, Durrer also planned to introduce the results of a State Police investigation that concluded Greene had been awake for 20 hours before the wreck and helped his sister move furniture in Dumfries all day.

The investigation also found that immediately before the crash, Greene was unsure which lane he was driving in, if he had crossed the double yellow line or if he fell asleep behind the wheel.