Columbus man pleads in drag-race hit-and-run that injured son, crippled CSU student
William Davis Tarver Sr.’s speeding car hit a BMW so hard the impact ripped the engine block out of his Chevy Malibu and sent it sliding down Lawyer’s Lane.
It also broke his 9-year-old son’s collarbone and crippled the Columbus State University student driving the BMW.
But Tarver, who had been drag racing with the driver of a Ford Crown Victoria, did not stick around to gauge the damage: He pulled his son from the 1982 Malibu, abandoned the wrecked car, got into the Ford he had been racing against and fled.
While the 19-year-old woman from the BMW remained hospitalized in critical condition, area authorities spent a month hunting for Tarver, then-30, before U.S. Marshals found him around midnight Aug. 8, 2015, in Phenix City.
He was charged with multiple felonies for the wreck that occurred around 3:30 p.m. July 3, 2015, on Lawyer’s Lane at 10th Street, where witnesses said Tarver had been racing a blue Ford when he lost control of the Chevy, which went into a “broadside slide” before smashing into the woman’s 2002 BMW 3251.
His son’s fracture healed, but the woman was left brain-damaged, unable to move her arms and legs, and in need of constant care. She communicates by blinking.
Her mother believes Tarver should have paid a tougher penalty.
He pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of causing serious injury by vehicle and one count each of reckless driving, hit and run, driving with a suspended license and racing. Judge Ben Land sentenced him to 30 years in prison with 10 to serve and the rest on probation.
Tarver, who is 33 now, apologized in court for his recklessness.
His indictment alleged he’s a repeat offender, having been convicted in four felony cases since 2004.
The 2004 case alleged that on May 23, Tarver threatened to kill a woman, hit her with an electronic device, kicked his son’s car seat with the child in it and left the boy in the seat in a roadway. Tarver was charged with terroristic threats, reckless conduct and two counts of simple battery.
The son’s name in that case differed from the name of the child injured in the 2015 wreck.