COLFAX — Frederick Russell, who fled to Ireland to avoid charges that he killed three college students in a 2001 drunken-driving wreck, was sentenced to the maximum 14 years, three months in prison Wednesday by a judge who told him he deserved no leniency.
“You were grossly irresponsible,” Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier said. “You are going to get the maximum sentence under the law. You deserve it. It’s as simple as that.”
A jury convicted Russell, 29, in November on three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault. He was drunk, speeding and trying to pass in a no-passing zone on Highway 270 — the dangerous, winding road between the college towns of Pullman and Moscow, Idaho — the night of June 4, 2001, when his vehicle crossed the centerline and smashed into a car containing six fellow Washington State University students.
Russell clutched a rosary and stammered often as he addressed his surviving victims and the relatives of those killed, telling them that during the years he spent on the run, he often attended a church where he lit candles for the victims.
“There aren’t enough words that could define who your children were, that could define what you’ve gone through,” he said. “I’m sorry — you’ve been waiting too long to hear that.”
Killed were Brandon Clements, 22, of Wapato; Stacy Morrow, 21, of Milton; and Ryan Sorensen, 21, of Westport. John Wagner of Harrington; Kara Eichelsdoerfer of Central Park; and Sameer Ranade of Kennewick were seriously injured.
Several family members and two of the surviving crash victims addressed the court first, airing their grief. Wagner described the pain he continues to bear and pleaded with Russell for a simple apology.
“Just say you’re sorry,” Wagner said. “Accept responsibility and let us go on with our lives.”
Karen Overacker, Clements’ mother, said nothing prepared her for the horror of her son’s death, and described seeing his body on a cold metal table, his legs broken and his face reconstructed with wax and glue.
Russell’s flight added insult to their pain, several said.
“When it came time to stand up like a man … he chose to run,” Overacker said. “He chose to show himself as the coward he was raised to be.”
Afterward, Overacker and Eichelsdoerfer said they appreciated Russell’s apology.
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