‘Unsung hero’ died in fatal Columbus marijuana-DUI crash, family says at sentencing
Steven Duffey risked his life as a military intelligence contractor working in war-torn areas of Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, before he returned to the states to work as a long-haul truck driver and settled in Pensacola, Florida.
He came home to Columbus in 2019 for Thanksgiving, and looked forward to spending time with his family.
“I’m headed your way,” he told his mother that Nov. 26, and those were the last words she heard from him, because he never made it.
He was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle south on Moon Road that afternoon when a northbound 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee turned left in front of him, at the entrance ramp to the J.R. Allen Parkway’s westbound lanes.
Security cameras at a nearby bank branch recorded the ensuing collision, capturing video so graphic that prosecutors did not want to play it in court Tuesday as the Jeep’s driver pleaded guilty to first-degree homicide by vehicle.
“It’s like an explosion when the impact happens,” said Assistant District Attorney Robin Anthony. Duffey, 56, was hurled from the bike as its front tire jammed under the Jeep, and died at the hospital from extensive trauma, she said.
Police searching the Jeep found that the driver, 21-year-old Maddelyn Everton, had a bag containing seven marijuana “blunts,” or cigars into which the drug was stuffed. Later tests showed she had the drug’s active ingredient, THC, in her blood.
Besides vehicular homicide, she was also charged with driving under the influence of marijuana, misdemeanor possession of marijuana and failing to yield the right of way.
Pleading guilty Tuesday in Muscogee Superior Court, she was handed a 15 year sentence — five years in prison and the rest on probation — and ordered to pay $13,306 in restitution.
She was sentenced as a first offender, meaning that if she successfully completes her probation, her record will be expunged.
‘An unsung hero’
Everton is 24 years old now. Standing before Superior Court Judge Gil McBride, she listened while a victim’s advocate read statements from Duffey’s family, trying to explain their loss.
“The country has lost an unsung hero,” wrote brother John Duffey, who served alongside his sibling in lands with names “most people here can’t pronounce.”
Steven Duffey’s counter-insurgency work saved lives, the brother said: “The country has lost an unsung hero... He was a truck driver after he was a warrior.”
Another sibling, David Duffey, wrote that Steven Duffey was “a jokester and the life of any holiday party,” who had called him 20 minutes before the crash, saying he looked forward to their catching up at the family dinner.
“In his life, he has helped people become friends instead of enemies,” the brother wrote. “He made you feel like you were the most important person in the world.”
A sister, Pam Baker, wrote that Steven Duffey was “logical and scientific and intellectually curious,” and no one can replace him in her life. “It doesn’t help that I have to drive through that intersection where he was killed every day,” she added.
Everton tried to address the court, but began to cry, so defense attorney Susan Henderson read her statement. “I cannot begin to imagine what you are going through every day,” she wrote to Duffey’s family, adding, “I am sorry he is not here anymore, and I would change that if I could.”
Henderson said Everton had planned to become a veterinarian and worked at a veterinary hospital. Some coworkers testified on her behalf Tuesday, as did her mother and stepfather.
“A nanosecond of distraction can change everybody’s life,” Henderson told the court, saying Everton was not significantly impaired when the wreck happened.
Anthony countered that the crash occurred on a clear day when Everton should have seen the motorcycle coming: “This wasn’t at night. This wasn’t a blind curve. This wasn’t a hill.”
McBride said he had to consider those circumstances in deciding the sentence, along with the evidence of Everton’s marijuana use and the loss of life.
“You never get over the loss of a loved one in this type of incident,” the judge said, adding that the greater the love, the greater the loss: “Grief is the price that you pay for love.”
This story was originally published July 26, 2022 at 1:12 PM.