Maine’s highest court has upheld the sentence of the Tennessee trucker who caused a deadly and fiery crash on the midcoast in 2016.
In its 13-page decision, issued last week, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court weighed whether the 25-year sentence imposed on Randall Weddle, 61, was “barbarous” and “excessively harsh” in violation of both state law and the Maine and U.S. constitutions.
On March 18, 2016, Weddle was driving a 1998 Freightliner flatbed tractor-trailer hauling lumber east on Route 17 in Washington when he veered into oncoming traffic, striking four vehicles, one of which — a 1998 Chrysler van driven by Christina Torres-York, 45, of Warren, was pushed into a nearby field, where it burst into flames.
The crash killed Torres-York and Paul Fowles, 74, of Owls Head, whose 2009 Chevrolet Colorado was the first to be struck by Weddle.
Police later found a whiskey bottle and shot glass in Weddle’s truck. He was arrested in Virginia in June 2016.
Following a six-day jury trial in January 2018, Weddle was found guilty on 15 counts, including manslaughter. In March 2018, two years after the deadly crash, Knox County Superior Court Justice William Stokes sentenced Weddle to 30 years in prison with all but 25 years suspended, as well as four years of supervised release.
Weddle had previously petitioned the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to vacate his conviction, which the Law Court upheld in 2020.
In handing down the sentence, the trial judge had weighed mitigating factors like Weddle’s work history and his letter of remorse. But Stokes also considered aggravating factors such as Weddle being ill, fatigued, drinking alcohol while using prescription medication, having a blood alcohol level over the legal limit and driving 20 to 30 miles over the posted speed limit, according to the Supreme Judicial Court.
While those factors would make driving any vehicle dangerous, Stokes noted in trial that they combined to turn his 40-ton tractor-trailer into “a massive projectile” with the potential to cause “almost incalculable” death and harm, the justices wrote.
In considering Weddle’s arguments that his sentence was disproportionate to the crime and thus unconstitutional, the justices sided with the trial judge, who they argued adequately weighed mitigating and aggravating factors, including a dozen prior OUI convictions and Weddle’s loss of driving privileges in other states. The 30-year sentence was within the bounds set by Maine law for manslaughter.
The justices wrote that, based on those aggravating factors and the statutory limits for manslaughter sentences, Weddle’s prison term was not “barbarous” nor “excessively harsh,” violating neither Section 1 of the Maine Constitution nor the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Weddle should not have been driving any vehicle, let alone a commercial vehicle,” the justices wrote.
