EDITOR’S NOTE: Manninglive.com will be looking at the Top 15 stories of 2016, with a few updates here and there as available, over the next few days.
Twelve Clarendon County jurors took about two hours July 15 to decide the extent of a 40-year-old Sumter man’s involvement in the death of a 21-year-old Sumter woman on Fourth of July weekend in 2014.
Jurors found Chad Morris not guilty of reckless homicide by operation of a watercraft, guilty of the lesser-included offense of negligent operation of a watercraft and guilty of failure to render assistance where death results.
Circuit Court Judge Roger Young sentenced Morris to five years on the failure to render aid conviction and 30 days on the negligent operation one, along with a $200 fine.
“My impression of you is you’re a fairly simple man,” Young told Morris during sentencing. “You’re more the type of person who gets led, rather than the person who is the leader. Nevertheless, your conduct deserves punishment. What you did that night was an accident, but afterward, you didn’t try to help. I understand your own feelings and story, but you had a duty to render aid and you failed in that duty.”
Morris was charged in August 2014 for the wreck, which happened in the early morning hours of July 4, 2014, near Scarborough’s on Lake Marion, and resulted in the death of Hailey Joanne Bordeaux, a University of South Carolina student. Morris and his companions claimed during testimony this week that they didn’t know what their boat had hit at the time of the wreck, and that they had to turn around to see what they’d hit. They claimed the other boat had no lights on, and that arguments ensued between their boat and the victim’s boat.
The victim’s companions – Steven Stafford, her boyfriend of six years, and Justin and Caroline Cromer – said, however, their boat lights were on, and that they were frantically waving flashlights on their phones to try to catch Morris’ attention before the wreck.
Stafford and the Cromers told jurors that Morris’ companions yelled obscenities, and that a woman told them to “shut the f— up or I’m not calling 911.”
“This was a tragedy: A young girl’s life was lost much too soon,” said 3rd Circuit Assistant Solicitor Chris DuRant. “The jury agreed today that he did nothing to help after causing the wreck that killed Hailey Joanne Bordeaux.”
DuRant presented nine eye witnesses to the wreck, many of whom contended during two days of testimony this week that Morris and his companions left the scene of the wreck, did not call 911 and did not provide their information after the wreck.
DuRant argued that Morris was “consciously aware” of his recklessness on the lake, and that he had an indifference to the safety and wellbeing of others on the lake.
“Take the speed of the boat: It caught the attention of three different bystanders, all at different vantage points, who said, ‘Nothing good can come from this,’ and ‘They’re going to kill someone,'” DuRant said during closing arguments Friday morning. “After the wreck, he didn’t help those in the other boat he hit. He has a duty according to law, if he can do so without serious danger to himself or his passengers. Instead, he was more concerned about his own boat. He wanted to get to shore to check on his own boat.”
Manning attorney Shaun Kent agreed with DuRant’s contention throughout the week that Morris was and is responsible for Bordeaux’s death. However, he told jurors Friday morning during closing arguments that, if they were to find Morris guilty, they should find him guilty of negligent operation, not reckless homicide.
“He wasn’t playing chicken; he wasn’t out jumping other boats,” Kent said. “Speed is a factor, but there are no speed limits on the lake. Weather reports say it was cloudy. And he wasn’t looking out. That’s negligence. Not reckless homicide.”
