An Austintown man accused of killing three Marine recruits and injuring a fourth was secretly indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury.
Don Williams, 45, who investigators say was driving a truck that crashed into a car containing four recruits, voluntarily surrendered Monday afternoon. He was accompanied by his attorney, Gerald Ingram.
Williams is charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault. He was arraigned Monday afternoon by Judge Peter Kontos.
Williams was housed in the Trumbull County Jail on $250,000 bond. A bond hearing has been set for Wednesday in Judge Wyatt McKay's courtroom.
"People charged with murder in this county are released on less bond than that," Ingram said.
Assistant County Prosecutor Mike Burnett said he believes that bond amount is fair "based on his prior criminal record, based on the severity of the charges and based on the transient nature of his occupation. He is a truck driver. Atty. Ingram said he has changed his vocation, but we are unaware of that."
Ingram told the court that Williams is no longer employed at Strimbu Trucking and has been working for a construction company.
Killed in the March 31 accident were Zachery A. Nolen, 19, of Newton Falls; Joshua A. Sherbourne, 21, of Southington; and Michael T. Theodore Jr., 19, of Warren. Station archives indicate that at least one dozen people in all were involved in the accident, which happened about 3:45 p.m. on State Route 5 near Burnett Road.
According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Sgt. Charles Keene was driving a Pontiac G6 with front seat passenger and recruit Carl McDermott III of Masury. Nolan, Sherbourne and Theodore were sitting in the back seat.
Just as Keene went to drive through the intersection of State Route 5 and Burnett Road, a tractor trailer driven by Williams crashed into them from behind. The G6 was then forced into the intersection from the impact, spun around and was hit several times by several other vehicles, said police.
Investigators said one victim died at the scene, another at Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital and the third at Saint Elizabeth Health Center. Keene, a Marine recruiter, was taking the four men to Cleveland to sign final papers for enlistment in the Marines.
