Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Bartholomew Circuit Court for a local man accused of reckless homicide in the death of a Brown County driver in a chain reaction accident on Columbus’ west side.
Bartholomew County prosecutors charged Ruel P. Pedigo III, 50, of 1085 Jonesville Road, with three felonies in the aftermath of the Jan. 27, 2018 accident that claimed the life of Patrick N. Bowman, 35, of Brown County.
Bowman was a 2001 graduate of Columbus North High School. Bowman’s passenger and fiancee Sarah Fliehman suffered head injuries and was hospitalized after the accident.
Pedigo is accused of operating a vehicle with a controlled substance in the blood, a Level 4 felony; reckless homicide, a Level 5 felony; and causing serious bodily injury when operating a motor vehicle with a controlled substance in the blood, a Level 6 felony, court records state.
The charges stem from a multi-vehicle accident at 7:40 p.m. Jan. 27, 2018, in the eastbound lanes of Jonathan Moore Pike near Johnson Boulevard, involving as many as six vehicles.
Investigators said Pedigo was driving a Ford F650 tow truck with a vehicle on the flatbed when he rear-ended a Mazda 3 car driven by Bowman. A number of collisions occurred among vehicles in front of the Mazda after the tow truck hit it, accident reconstructionists said in court documents.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
