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911 Call Opens Trial In Chasco Deaths

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By TODD LESKANIC

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 17, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Robert Bartlett pleaded with a 911 operator to send help for his friends Joe Swiech and Sarah Gleason.

"I'm not even a half a mile from the hospital on Grand Boulevard," Bartlett said, breathlessly. "Please hurry."

A pickup truck had just run down Swiech and Gleason as they were walking home from the Chasco Fiesta along Grand Boulevard. Bartlett, who was walking next to them, barely escaped injury.

A jury heard a tape of Bartlett's desperate call Monday, the first day of Shannon Stephen's DUI-manslaughter trial. Investigators think Stephen, 36, was driving the Chevy Silverado truck that killed the couple just after 1 a.m. on March 26, 2006.

His blood-alcohol level was measured at 0.24 more than 90 minutes after the accident, authorities said. Florida law presumes drivers to be intoxicated at 0.08.

The Holiday resident is charged with two counts of driving under the influence-manslaughter and a single count of leaving the scene of a crash involving death. He faces up to 45 years in prison if found guilty of all three offenses.

But was Stephen driving? In his opening statement Monday, defense attorney Ken Foote said he wasn't.

"The evidence will show you that not one state's witness will say Stephen was driving the vehicle at the time these two people were killed," Foote said.

Foote has said previously a friend was driving Stephen's Silverado when it hit Swiech and Gleason. The friend drove off and then bailed after the pickup's engine seized, leaving a drunken Stephen behind the wheel to face the consequences, Foote said.

Swiech, 26, and Gleason, 24, had moved to Elfers from upstate New York and were to be married in 2007. Gleason worked as a waitress at Hooters in Palm Harbor and was taking college courses online. Swiech taught preschool at KinderCare in Dunedin.

The couple and Bartlett had spent the afternoon and evening at New Port Richey's annual street party. They were walking home from a downtown bar when the accident happened.

Just before the truck crashed into his friends, Bartlett had called Rick Scott and James Ramsey to ask for a ride.

According to testimony, Stephen had been drinking heavily that night as well, but not at Chasco. He and friends Jim Wallace and Marvin Dalzell were at a bar at Little Road and Old State Road 54, drinking and playing pool.

Wallace testified Monday that Stephen was intoxicated when they left the bar but refused offers for a ride home. Instead, he got into his truck and drove off. Wallace said he later received a call from Dalzell telling him that Stephen had hit two people.

On the way to pick up their friends, Scott and Ramsey saw the damaged pickup stopped just north of State Road 54 and Grand. They saw a man hiding behind a traffic light control box and talking on his cell phone.

When they drove up and Bartlett told them what happened, Scott and Ramsey immediately drove back to the damaged truck. They dragged Stephen out of the Silverado and held him until authorities arrived.

Foote disputed that account in his opening statement, saying Ramsey and Scott gave two different descriptions of the man they saw on phone. And when law enforcement officers arrived at Stephen's truck, Foote said, he "appeared to not even know what was going on."

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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