A tow truck driver accused of causing a multi-vehicle accident last year that killed a Brown County musician and severely injured his fiancee was sentenced to 13 years in prison followed by probation.
Ruel P. Pedigo III, 50, 1085 Jonesville Road, stood without reaction Friday as Bartholomew County Sheriff corrections officers handcuffed him in a starkly silent Bartholomew Superior Court 1 courtroom.
The clicks of the handcuffs encircling his wrists were audible in the silence, punctuating the end to hours of gut-wrenching testimony from witnesses, and Judge Kelly Benjamin’s comments about the effect on multiple families whose loved ones were involved in the accident and the ongoing overwhelming grief of the victim’s family.
After moving the sentencing to the larger courtroom to accommodate more than 30 people who attended the sentencing, Benjamin sentenced Pedigo to four years in prison for felony reckless homicide resulting in death and nine years in prison for causing a death while operating a motor vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance, to be served consecutively.
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Pedigo received two years in prison for causing serious injury while under the influence of a controlled substance, but that was suspended, to be served as probation with Bartholomew County Community Corrections when he is released from the Indiana Department of Correction on the other two convictions. He told Benjamin he plans to appeal his conviction.
Pedigo was convicted by a jury in May of being under the influence of methamphetamine and possibly marijuana on the night of Jan. 27, 2018, when a chain-reaction accident occurred on Jonathan Moore Pike near the stoplight at Starbucks.
Pedigo’s tow truck smashed into the back of a Mazda 3 car driven by former Columbus resident and musician Patrick N. Bowman, 35, of Brown County, who was killed. His fiancee Sarah Fliehman suffered serious injuries in the crash, injuries that she has not recovered from yet, according to Bowman’s family. Bowman graduated from Columbus North High School in 2001.
Six eastbound vehicles were stopped at 7:40 p.m. Jan. 27, 2018 at a red light when Pedigo’s tow truck hit Bowman’s car from behind, leading to the chain-reaction accident in which cars careened and collided in three lanes of traffic around the initial impact.
Pedigo had contended that after leaving I-65 with a vehicle on his tow truck that a small black car had changed lanes into Pedigo’s path eastbound which caused him to slide into the vehicles. Benjamin methodically unraveled his version of events by quoting from trial testimony that showed Pedigo failed to brake until he hit Bowman’s car, striking it at about 37 mph and causing nearby vehicles to collide in a chain reaction in which many other people were injured and traumatized.
Citing witness accounts and testimony from other drivers at the scene, Benjamin said it was an aggravating factor that Pedigo failed to offer assistance to anyone and for awhile stayed in his tow truck as passersby and other drivers attempted to help Bowman, Fliehman and other people who were injured.
Pedigo testifies
The sentencing hearing began with testimony from the defendant’s wife, Rhonda Pedigo, who said every moment of her family’s life had changed since the night of the accident. Although she works at Columbus Regional Hospital, she said a lengthy prison sentence for her husband would be very tough financially for the family and would change her life dramatically.
“I will have to do everything on my own,” she said.
Ruel Pedigo took the stand also, saying he had not had a “straight thought” since the accident occurred. “Not a day goes by that I don’t replay it over and over. It’s totally made me a different person,” he said. “I can’t imagine what his (Bowman’s) parents are going through.”
Testifying he has a substance abuse issue, Ruel Pedigo said he had been going to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings one to three times a month, but admitted that he had used drugs as recently as a week before the trial in May.
For the first time in court, he did offer words of remorse to the Bowman family.
“I don’t have the words to say how sorry I am,” he testified. “I’m deeply sorry for what happened. I wasn’t impaired in any way. I want the judge to know how sorry I am for the pain and suffering everyone is going through.”
Bartholomew County Deputy Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay, who had earlier pointed out that Ruel Pedigo had two earlier operating while intoxicated convictions, one 25 years ago and the other 13 years ago, said the defendant told probation officials he had been using methamphetamine since age 30, meaning he has been using methamphetamine for 20 years.
Parents share pain
Judy Bowman, Patrick Bowman’s mother, spoke directly to Ruel Pedigo through tears, describing her son as a “kind and thoughtful young man. He was a fine son, brother, friend and a gifted musician. There are no words to describe how horrific his death must have been for him and there are no words to describe our anguish and grief since the night he was killed.”
She continued: “Did Patrick see the tow truck barreling toward him in his rear-view mirror?” she asked. “Did he anticipate what was about to happen? What did he feel before he died? As his chest was crushed, did he cry out in agony? How long did he feel unbearable pain before he died? He suffered a horrific death, and these are just a few of the questions that torment me day and night,” she testified.
“At that spot on Jonathan Moore Pike, everything changed! Everything,” Judy Bowman said. “Patrick was dead. My son was dead. He is dead because one man chose to use drugs and then, at full-speed, drove his loaded tow truck into the back seat of Patrick’s car and crushed the life out of my son.”
Patrick’s father, Rick Bowman, talked about how the memories and reminders of Patrick surround him every day.
“The grief of losing a child is a terrible thing,” Rick Bowman said. “Reminders of Patrick are all around me. Every time I see places of things that gave me pleasant memories of Patrick in the past, such as the motorcycle in my garage we were restoring together, driving past one of the schools he attended here in Columbus, seeing comic books he collected, driving to Brown County where he used to live, or hearing any country song, I’m now reminded that he is gone forever and he lost his life in a very horrible wreck.”
Rick Bowman talked about how difficult is has been to protect his family from the grief, pain and suffering that all are feeling.
“I watched Judy cry every day for months and I wasn’t able to say or do anything to stop her tears,” he said. “As her husband, I have always done my best to protect her from anything that would harm her physically or emotionally, but I can’t protect her from this terrible pain. I haven’t been able to protect our daughter Kathryn, Patrick’s sister, from this pain, nor have I been able to stop the pain and suffering of Patrick’s extended family and many friends who are still grieving.”
Sentencing reactions
Bowman’s parents were holding hands and sitting closely together when Benjamin pronounced the sentence, and received hugs from family members after the hearing.
Benjamin said that Ruel Pedigo had opportunities to seek help for his addiction, with the previous OWI convictions serving as warnings that he should have sought treatment. Referring to a pre-sentence report in which the defendant said he couldn’t obtain treatment because of the cost, she asked him to consider the cost of the accident in anguish, pain and grief, and that it could have been prevented if he had taken the responsibility to obtain treatment and stay in recovery.
The Bowmans had asked that Ruel Pedigo receive the maximum sentence on all three felonies, and although that didn’t happen, they were comforted by families and friends who offered hugs and reassurances after the hearing.
Judy Bowman said she had been bracing herself for the sentencing and expressed gratitude for Benjamin quoting from letters sent to her about the kind of person Patrick Bowman was.
“That’s who Patrick was, kind and generous. I’m glad we’re past today. He (Pedigo) has to begin paying consequences for what he has done. And he can’t be out driving under the influence of drugs now.”
