Twelve Clarendon County jurors took about two hours on Friday 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 late Friday afternoon. "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."
DuRant said Morris and his companions had enough time to "argue about the boat lights, why didn't they have the time to call 911 or render aid?"
"Whether the lights were on or not should've been the furthest thing from his mind," said DuRant. "It's inconsequential: There's a young girl there, dying."
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."
Kent agreed that his client was probably driving too fast for donctions and failed to maintain a proper lookout.
"I agree with the state: It doesn't matter whether the lights were on or lights were off," Kent said. "He didn't see her boat. He just didn't."
Kent said while DuRant kept arguing throughout the week and questioning witnesses about Morris' supposed fleeing of the scene of the wreck, "the law says nothing about that."
"The law says you must do everything that is practical and necessary to render aid," Kent said. "Yes, I've asked Chad myself, 'Why didn't you do more?' Had he done everything he could've done? Noo. But is that the law?"
Kent said Morris believed that 911 had been called, and that others on Bordeaux's boat was rendering aid. During his own tesitmony on Thursday afternoon, Morris said with the arguing between the boats, he didn't think he would help the situation by boarding Bordeaux's boat.
"(DuRant) wants you to believe he fled the scene," Kent said. "But Chad turns himself in that night. He gives a statement to DNR without a lawyer and takes two field sobriety tests, which he is told he passes. And then they send him home."
Kent said Morris' field sobriety tests were offered within two hours of the wreck.
"So, the great, evil Chad Morris that the state wants you to believe exist, he's done this awful thing of leaving the scene of this tragic wreck, and law enforcement sends him home?" Kent said.
Kent told the jurors that Morris was not his smartest client.
"I've told him to his face that he's stupid," Kent said. "I've struggled with this case and asked him why he didn't do more. But he didn't do this intentionally, and he believed he'd done all he could do to help."
The jury agreed that Morris was not reckless, but not that Morris had done all he could do.
"Hailey Bordeaux is gone: She died that night on Lake Marion in Clarendon County on the Fourth of July," said DuRant. "She's a daughter, granddaughter, niece, girlfriend and best friend that's gone, and (Morris) is the man that killed her. No one in this court believes he meant to kill her."
DuRant said jurors weren't in court because of a question of intent.
"We are here because of indifference," he said. "He didn't care what might've happened that night. And he certainly didn't care afterward."
DuRant took issue with Kent's assertion that a report from an Orangeburg weather station reported cloudy conditions on the morning of the wreck. Stafford, the first witness called by the state on Tuesday, told jurors that some of his girlfriend's last words were about all the stars in the sky.
"She said, 'I could stay out here all night and look at the stars,'" Stafford said.
"(Morris) wants you to believe that it was cloudy?" DuRant asked jurors Friday. "He wants you to believe that these three - Stafford and the Cromers - are lying about the last words of one of their best friends. A weather report from Orangeburg means these victims are lying?"
DuRant attacked Kent's witnesses for their various consitencies during Thursday's testimony. Kent himself pointed out they were inconsistent "about an incident that happened two years ago."
"One witness told you that nobody was knocked in the water during the wreck, when the victims say they were knocked into the water," DuRant said. "Another witness also testified that there were victims in the water after the wreck."
"Laurie Manes told you thatshe called 911 while they were out there, but Jessica Long told you that she was the only one that called 911," he said. "Morris said the boat's lights were off, and Laurie Main said the boat cut its lights on after the wreck. Jessica said it was only a few minutes after they got to a friend's house before DNR showed up, while the call shows that it was an hour. Stephanie Barkley told you that they only called 911 when they got to her parent's house."
DuRant said "this witness contradicted this witness who contradicted this witness."
"It's a web of lies, an interwoven web of deceit where everyone is singing a different song," DuRant said. "It's an utter circle of inconsistency."
After the verdict and during sentencing, Young took very little issue with the various inconsistencies presented throughout testimony.
"The hardest thing to do in a trial, and it should be the easiest, is to keep an open mind until you've heard all the evidence," Young said. "It's not easy, but it should be. But you have to keep an open mind, because there's always, always, always two sides to every story."
Young said that all the witnesses saw the same thing but described them in critically different ways.
He noted that South Carolina does not have a Good Samaritan law, where a duty is required of someone to help someone in need.
"However, in this case, in the operation of a watercraft, the legislature has said that you had a duty by enacting this statue," said Young. "You have to come to their aid as best you can. I agree with the jury: I believe you weren't reckless, but you were negligent. Whether you were speeding or not, the result was the same. You didn't see that girl, whether it was cloudy or there were stars in the sky."
Young said Morris hurt his case due to his conduct after the wreck.
"You didn't think to go over to the other boat," Young said "And then you made a statement at Rusty Harrington's house, when told you should go talk to law enforcement, 'I'm not dealing with it now. I'll talk to them in the morning,'" Young said. "I know you ultimately cooperated, but the thing that really hurt you throughout this trial was your conduct after the accident."
Young told Morris he did not believe he was an "evil person."
"And I don't think anyone thought that you were," he said. "Obviously, the legislature, in enacting this statute, has said that there's a duty to render aid in this instance, and by having this statute, that tells me that this is important for public safety. They take this very, very seriously."
"Things got said that night that don't put you in a good light, but I have to be careful to separate what you said and what other people on the boat said," Young said.
Young noted that while he'd heard testimony about swearing and arguments after the wreck, no witnesses alleged that Morris had been a part of that fracas.
"There was a lot of confusion after this incident, but you used very poor judgment in the aftermath," Young said. "At some point, you needed to come about and ask if anyone was hurt and then try and help."
Young said through his sentencing that he had to "send a message out to the rest of the community that after a boating wreck, one must render aid to the victims."
"So, sending you home is not an option," he said. "But 25 years, the maximum, is not an option either. So a five-year sentence will let people in the community know that this kind of thing will not go unpunished and that we're not going to tolerate this."
"Mr. Morris, I think you were just a simple person who got into a bad situation and then did not make good decisions," he said.
Morris will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence, as failure to render aid is a most-serious offense. With good behavior in prison, he will be eligible for release after four years and three months.
