“Never meant for this to happen.’ Columbus man pleads guilty in fatal drunk driving crash
Michael Sean Shake was roaring through downtown Columbus at 109 mph with a blood-alcohol content twice the legal limit when his SUV slammed into a sedan at Sixth Avenue and Ninth Street, killing two men in the other car, authorities said.
Because the intersection’s right by the Muscogee County Jail, two police officers leaving the facility were at the crash site immediately, their body cameras recording a scene so horrific that prosecutor Veronica Hansis didn’t want to show it in court Thursday because of “the gruesome nature of the evidence.”
Killed in the 2017 crash were two Alabama men, Quinton Moss, 30, of Phenix City, and Anthony Tallis Fort, 25, of Pittsview, cousins who were on their way to a high school reunion, Hansis said.
“If there was any way to trade places with the young men, I would trade places with them,” Shake said as he pleaded guilty to multiple traffic offenses, including two counts each of first-degree homicide by vehicle and of serious injury by vehicle.
“I never meant for this to happen, and I’m sorry,” he told the men’s families as they stood before Judge Ben Land. “Whatever the judge gives me, I’ll accept it.”
But Shake, now 43, already had rejected Hansis’ offer of a 30-year sentence with 20 to serve and the rest on probation. He instead opted for a “cold plea,” meaning Land will decide his sentence with no agreement between the prosecution and defense.
Land set Shake’s sentencing for Feb. 28, warning Shake he faces a maximum 64 years in prison on all the charges, which besides the homicide and serious injury counts include the misdemeanors of DUI, reckless driving, driving too fast for conditions and running a red light.
Defense attorney Jennifer Curry disputed Shake’s estimated speed and blood-alcohol content, saying the blood test was tainted by alcohol used to clean Shake’s arm as he was being treated for his injuries. Shake’s BAC was .16, and .08 is enough for a driver to be charged with DUI.
Shake denied having drunk so much, saying he had been drinking earlier in the evening, but not right before the crash. Curry said his speed was around 65 mph, still more than twice the posted speed limit of 30 mph there.
Hansis said the evidence indicates otherwise: Shake and two men with him had just left a Taco Bell where a witness noticed how intoxicated he was, and where he was recorded on surveillance video. The crash also was recorded by nearby security cameras, providing additional evidence police used to calculate his speed, Hansis said.
The collision was on June 23, 2017. Moss was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:23 p.m., and Fort died at the hospital at 11:36 p.m., authorities said.
Investigators said Shake was driving a 1995 Isuzu Rodeo south on Sixth Avenue when he ran the red light and hit a 2007 Ford Fusion that Moss was driving east on Ninth Street, with Fort in the front passenger’s seat.
Shake and the two passengers in his Isuzu were seriously injured. Neither passenger wore a seat belt, and one was propelled from the back seat into the front, landing atop the other, Hansis said.
“It’s a tangle of bodies,” she said of the police body-cam video. “You couldn’t tell where one started and one stopped.”
Both passengers recovered after being treated for multiple fractures in intensive care. One later told police he had begged Shake to slow down, before the collision, and had asked to be let out of the vehicle.
While denying he was drunk, Shake acknowledged he was angry because he and a passenger were having a dispute. He claimed the tension caused his blood pressure to spike and he blacked out, leaving no recollection of the ensuing crash.
Shake so far remains free on bond as he awaits his sentencing.