Man is sentenced to 8 years in fatal crash

A Moore man sentenced to eight years in prison for a fatal Oklahoma City car crash told the victim’s widow he “had no intent to hurt anyone that day.”

“I apologize for what happened,” Dustin Shane Hall said during his sentencing Friday. “I wish I could make it better but I hope you can get through it.”

Prosecutors said Hall, while under the influence of prescription drugs, rearended the victim’s car at a high rate of speed. The victim, Ronald Banton, 27, had slowed his vehicle to make a turn and Hall collided with the back of the victim’s vehicle.

Hall, 34, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and causing an accident without a valid driver’s license. He accepted a plea agreement. The victim’s family approved the deal.

The victim’s 7-yearold son, who survived the December 2013 accident, cuddled with his mother and wiped tears from his eyes during the sentencing. The boy was 5 at the time of the crash.

The widow, Janae Banton, didn’t speak during the sentencing but a prosecutor read her statement to Oklahoma County District Judge Timothy Henderson.

“I lost my best friend, my hero, my comedian, my up when I was down,” the prosecutor read for the widow.

After the sentencing, defense attorney J.W. Coyle III said, “It’s a tragic accident.

“The Banton family was very gracious toward him and very forgiving. ... He’s felt bad about it every day since it happened. He continues to feel bad about it.”

The defense attorney said Hall suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Iraq as a private in the U.S. Marine Corps. The attorney said Hall was honorably discharged. Hall told the judge he has been diagnosed with PTSD and has been prescribed the anti-anxiety drug Xanax but had not taken any before Friday’s court appearance.

“He didn’t always take his medication as he should have and that resulted in some level of impairment at the time of the accident,” the defense attorney said.

A number of prescription drugs were found in Hall’s system at the time of the crash, including Xanax. The defense attorney said all the drugs in Hall’s system were prescribed. The attorney also said Hall had been using his phone.

“He’s not sure if he was on the phone right at that moment,” the defense attorney said.

Hall also pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine in a separate case. He will serve time for that crime at the same time as the manslaughter offense.