A. M. Stone | WVOW News
LOGAN A Mount Gay man entered a guilty plea Thursday for causing a drunken crash that killed a man last December.
According to the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office, 73-year-old Eddie Lee Bailey, of Mount Gay, entered a plea of guilty for the charge of Driving Under the Influence Causing Death. Prosecutor David Wandling in a statement said the plea was the result of an investigation that found Bailey was under the influence when his truck crossed the center line and collided with another vehicle.
(Mugshot of Eddie Lee Bailey at the Southwestern Regional Jail the morning of December 26, 2024. According to the criminal complaint, a silver Toyota Echo in the opposite lane had received substantial damage and ejected the driver approximately forty feet over the creek embankment.)
The crash happened around five o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, December 26, 2024 on Holden Road between the Shamrock Bridge and Logan Heights Road. Logan County Sheriff’s Deputies said a black Chevrolet Silverado was parked sideways, in the middle of the road, and crossing the center line in the opposite direction of travel when they arrived. According to the criminal complaint, a silver Toyota Echo with substantial damage was in the opposite lane. The crash ejected and killed 21-year-old David Trammel, of Peach Creek.
The guilty plea cancels the trails that was scheduled to begin Wednesday next week. Wandling said in his statement following the plea that no charges were reduced or dismissed as a result of the plea agreement. Bailey questioned the manner in which certain evidence, such as blood for a blood alcohol content test, was collected during the investigation. Ultimately, the State prevailed in the argument.
“That’s important,” Wandling told WVOW News, “because without the blood, there would be no report about the alcohol content in his blood and we wouldn’t have much.”
Bailey faces a possible sentence of between three to fifteen years. Wandling said he hopes lawmakers re-examine the penalties involved in DUI cases.
“I wish our legislature would take up the cause and enhance the penalty for DUI causing serious bodily injury or DUI causing death like in this case, because when you’re talking about the loss of life wherein someone gets behind the wheel of a car either high – or under the influence of alcohol like Mister Bailey in this case – not less than three to more than fifteen years simply isn’t long enough,” he told WVOW News.
Bailey was released on home confinement pending sentencing which is scheduled for December twelfth at 2:00p.m. before Honorable Judge Kelly Codispoti.
PHOTO | File