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The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 38

Location:
Montgomery, Alabama
Issue Date:
Page:
38
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

PAGE 2C joiTR.AL Atoertfeer THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 27. 1986 Woman gets probation in DUI incident iQJJDW Q.DK1 AP wire photo Freddie Sutton of Ariton inspects damage to truck a tornado struck town Tuesday night Violent twister leaves path of destruction (gCSHEfl'G' By EMILY BENTLEY Journal Staff Writer A possible 20-year prison sentence for a Montgomery woman was reduced Wednesday to a few years probation because of the forgiving family of an accident victim. Thirty-two-year-old Barbara Bruce of 107 Brantwood Drive originally was charged with murder in connection with the traffic death of 23-year-old Harold Glenn Rutherford. But members of Rutherford's family, who wrote the Montgomery County district attorney's office in April, said they felt the murder charge and 20-year sentence were too severe in this case.

Bruce's car collided head-on with Rutherford's in the March 24, 1985, accident. Blood alcohol tests showed Bruce was driving under the influence at the time. Assistant District Attorney Rusty Loftin said Bruce pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter Oct. 14. "It was a case where the victim's family didn't want a pound of flesh," Loftin said.

He said Bruce's reduced charge and sentence were the result of the family's request. "We would've prosecuted it on the murder charge, but the victim's family didn't want us to," he said. Bruce was sentenced in Montgomery County Circuit Court Wednesday to three years probation. Judge Mark Kennedy gave Bruce a five-year sentence, which he suspended to three years probation and community service. Bruce will begin the sentence next week, serving 60 days in the County Jail and then 30 days served on weekends.

Bruce would have gotten at least a 20-year sentence had she been convicted on the murder charge. Loftin said DUI cases usually are prosecuted on the most serious charge possible, and the Rutherford family's gesture is unusual. "Every case is special," Loftin said, and they should be handled differently. He said the kind-heartedness of the victim's family is remarkable. Bruce, he explained, had no prior record.

She is a single parent with a young child, he added. In the accident, Bruce apparently crossed the center line of Carmichael Road about 12:30 a.m. March 24, colliding head-on with Rutherford's car. Loftin said evidence prepared for the case showed that Bruce's blood alcohol content was 0.16 percent when she was tested after the accident. In Alabama, a blood alcohol content of 0.10 percent is considered intoxicated.

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Contact Jeannie Ketzler today at 834-7934 for details on how we may improve your financial plan. Minimum Line $5,000 through their property just off Dale County road 51. Eight volunteers for the local Arthritis Foundation were busy cooking turkeys and hams around 2:15 a.m. in The Donaldson Park in Enterprise, when they heard a radio news report of the tornado strike in New Brockton. Enterprise Mayor Don Donaldson said trees and chain-link fences in the park were blown down, causing an estimated $70,000 in damage, but he said the damage estimate reaches $250,000 when the damage to the businesses near the park is included.

The cooks also lost the 54 smoked hams that other people had purchased from the Arthritis Foundation for $30 a piece, but salvaged the 93 turkeys people had ordered. Fort Rucker residents were awakened around 2 a.m. by military police patrol cars that blasted the message, "Wake up. Open all your windows. We are under a tornado warning." A post spokesman said a cone-shaped cloud had been sighted over the Daleville- Fort Rucker area just before the military police began their patrols.

He said only one helicopter received minor damage from the high winds, and about five telephone poles were knocked down. New Brockton officials said all electricity and phone service had been restored by Wednesday afternoon, except to the houses that were too badly damaged. In Pike County, a twister reported about 1:30 a.m. damaged a house, two mobile homes and a chicken house. Officials said the twister then went into the Banks community where it did severe damage to the Goldkist Peanut Buying Point.

By JUDY FISH Advertiser Staff Writer NEW BROCKTON Prison inmates, county and city employees and volunteers pitched in Wednesday to clean up an estimated $1 million to $1.5 million in damage caused by a tornado that left a path of destruction through Coffee, Dale and Barbour counties Tuesday night. During a few brief minutes, a twister ripped through this Coffee County town of less than 1,400 people and destroyed the Methodist Church, six mobile homes and damaged some 25 homes, according to New Brockton Police Chief Gordon Lueck. That was just over an hour after a tornado watch for most of southeast Alabama had expired. "It's remarkable that no one was seriously injured or killed," Lueck said. He said the estimated $1 million to $1.5 million in damages includes clean-up.

He said the damage to the church alone has been estimated at $250,000 by the Department of Civil Defense. Four generations of the Sutton family in Barbour County were startled around 10 p.m. when the winds picked up on their 2,600 acre farm. The mobile home belonging to Lurlean Sutton's son and daughter and their three-year-old son was blown apart but the three escaped with minor injuries, she said. "We are all alive and for that we are very thankful," Sutton said, adding that six of her family's eight homes received damage.

Harden said another cluster of three houses of relatives received minor injuries when the twister swept Main OffkeDowrrtown 348 Montgomery Street Western Branch 4550 Mobile Highway Eastmont Branch 5400 Atlanta Highway Southeast Branch 2843 East South Boulevard EQUAL HOUSING LENOCR ic.xyy mm smsum and at Montgomery Mall, Christmas is wrapped in tradition. Visit jolly oV Santa and his lovable Talking Reindeer, take a fun ride on the traditional Christmas train and gaze in wonder at the magnificent poinsettia tree. Shop amidst the tvinkkng lights, happy faces and friendly voices raised in which are the special joys that make Montgomery Mall your traditional Christmas Place. CLOSED THANKSGIVING DAY Open Friday Saturday 9 AM tolOPM Talking Reindeer Hours: jfi'jx Monday-Friday 4-8 M) Saturday 10-3 and 4-8te 'V Sunday 1-5 JwM Santa HoursTrain Hours: Monday-Saturday 10-9 Sunday 1-5 train rides 750 per passenger Your Traditional Cltristmas Place 1.

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Pages Available:
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Years Available:
1858-2024