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Aug 12, 2009 5:53 pm US/Central
Driver In Deadly Haltom City Crash Had DWI Priors
HALTOM CITY (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A suspected drunk driver already convicted twice of DWI now sits in jail, again. This time she is charged with murder.
Police arrested 50-year old Tammy Sue Stegall after a crash that killed 56-year old Billy Ray Stroud. The crash happened Tuesday on the 5800 block of Belknap in Haltom City.
"It was a black car that hit the back of that tire and the back of that motorcycle went up and was rolling," said accident witness Brandon Teall. "Next thing you know, you see the car go up and over the bike and that guy."
Police say Stegall was given a field sobriety test after the crash. They were going to charge her with involuntary manslaughter -- until police checked her record.
"Once they got to looking at her history, she'd been convicted twice before of driving while intoxicated, so they upped the charges to murder," said Eric Peters from the Haltom City Police Department.
In fact, Stegall's record shows her last DWI was one year to the day of this deadly wreck. She served 30 days. She'd had a previous DWI conviction back in 1994, and records show other jail time served for forging checks and arrests for credit card abuse and possession of a controlled substance. Police say Stegall had an license that expired in 1997, and they don't know how she could have been on the road.
"That's what we want to know, why she was out driving," said Peters. "We can't stop her from driving. She's her own person."
Stroud buried his 20-year old son Jonathon this past Saturday. The lance corporal was killed in Afghanistan. A motorcycle honor guard called the Patriot Guard was at the funeral in Oklahoma. Riders there say the elder Stroud was so impressed by the honor guard, he bought his own motorcycle just one day before the deadly wreck.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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