Man who served time in child’s death pleads guilty in crash
Nearly 15 years after he was convicted of driving drunk in a crash that killed a 12-yearold pedestrian, Charles L. Carson was back in front of a Franklin County judge on Thursday for a drunkendriving crash in which two people were injured.
The 2003 case resulted in an 18-month jail sentence after Columbus police determined that the boy had darted in front of Carson’s SUV and would have been struck even if Carson had been sober.
But this most recent crash clearly was Carson’s fault, according to details provided by Assistant Prosecutor Keith McGrath.
He and defense attorney, Steve Dehnart, recommended a three-year prison sentence after Carson pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular assault.
Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye scheduled sentencing for Nov. 30 and suggested that he will follow the recommendation as long as Carson, who is free on bond, shows up for the hearing. The judge also could impose a lifetime suspension of Carson’s driver’s license.
Carson, 43, of the Near East Side, was driving west on East 5th Avenue at I-670 around 10:30 p.m. Dec. 1 when his car went through a red light and collided with another car, injuring that driver and a front-seat passenger. The passenger, a woman, sustained a broken pelvis, McGrath said.
Carson’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.26 percent, more than three times the level at which a driver is considered to be impaired in Ohio.
The fatal pedestrian crash occurred on June 23, 2002, when Carson’s SUV struck the child on a North Linden street. The boy, Henry E. Kimbleton, had been playing in a lawn sprinkler and ran into the street to avoid the spray, police reported.
A pair of tests after that crash measured Carson’s blood-alcohol content at 0.17 percent and 0.15 percent. A driver in Ohio is considered to be impaired at 0.08 percent.
Carson pleaded guilty in December 2002 to felony vehicular homicide and three misdemeanors: driving while intoxicated, driving with a suspended license and falsification. He was sentenced in February 2003 to six months on each of the misdemeanors and five years of probation for the felony.