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Witnesses Put Suspect In Hit-And-Run Truck

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By TODD LESKANIC

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

NEW PORT - RICHEY - Shannon Stephen's fate may rest on eyewitness testimony putting him near a truck that hit and killed two people.

Sarah Gleason and Joe Swiech were killed as they were walking alongside Grand Boulevard on March 26, 2006. Rick Scott and Jim Ramsey were on their way to give them a ride when the pedestrians were hit.

As Scott and Ramsey sat at a red light at State Road 54 and Grand, they said they saw a man get out of a damaged truck, examine the damage and then walk to the side of the road. He hid behind a control box and appeared to be talking on a cell phone.

Ramsey told a jury Tuesday that man was Stephen, on trial this week for two counts of DUI-manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident involving death. The 36-year-old Holiday man faces as much as 45 years in prison if found guilty as charged.

Scott and Ramsey didn't know what they were watching as they sat at the light. They only knew their friend Robert Bartlett had called and asked if they could give him and his friends, Swiech and Gleason, a ride home from a downtown bar. They had been at the annual Chasco Fiesta and needed a lift.

Rather than wait at the bar, though, the three started walking along Grand Boulevard.

About 1 a.m., a Chevy Silverado left the road, ran over the engaged couple and continued south. Swiech, 26, died instantly; Gleason, 24, died later at a hospital. Bartlett called 911, then stood stunned next to his friends' bodies. When Ramsey and Scott pulled up and Bartlett told them what had happened, the men connected it to what they had seen at the stoplight.

They raced back and pulled their truck in front of the Silverado, which had heavy damage to its front end.

"Rick beat me to the vehicle," Ramsey testified Tuesday. "He opened up the door, and the guy was trying to start the vehicle. Rick took him out and took him to the sidewalk and told him he wasn't going anywhere until we sorted this all out."

Ramsey identified Stephen as the man he saw that night, but Scott wasn't sure. Scott said in court Tuesday that Stephen fit the body type of the man he saw.

Stephen was arrested that night. He was found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.24. Florida law presumes drivers to be intoxicated at 0.08.

While cross-examining Ramsey and Scott, defense attorney Ken Foote attempted to draw out inconsistencies in their descriptions of what the man beside the road was wearing.

Foote is expected to use those inconsistencies to bolster his contention that Stephen wasn't driving his Silverado when it plowed into Swiech and Gleason. Foote has said a friend Stephen was out with that night struck the couple and then ran from the vehicle, leaving Stephen to face the charges.

Foote also drove home a key argument Tuesday during the cross-examination of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Ronald Evans. Evans told the jury he knew of no one who saw Stephen driving the Silverado when it hit Swiech and Gleason.

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

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