Pickup driver gets 3 years in 2009 death of bicyclist
Yesterday, the family of Steven Barbour heard for the first time what they’ve been aching for since his death in 2009: an apology.
“I’m so sorry for all the pain I’ve given you,” Edward Scott Miller told them, weeping in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. “I’m truly sorry I cannot bring him back to you.”
Then Miller heard his fate: three years in prison for causing the death of Barbour, a well-known bicyclist in central Ohio.
Miller was driving on Cemetery Road in Hilliard on July 18, 2009, after a night of drinking when his pickup rear-ended Barbour’s bicycle as Barbour was on his way to lead an organized bike ride. Barbour, of Upper Arlington, died of head injuries four days later at age 58.
Miller, 30, of Granville in Licking County, was accused of being drunk and reckless, but jurors couldn’t reach a verdict during a trial in April. A second trial was about to begin in September when Miller agreed to plead guilty to a third-degree felony count of causing a death by driving recklessly and a misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated.
Yesterday, Common Pleas Judge Stephen L. McIntosh sentenced him to three years for the first count and six months for the second, to run concurrently. He also suspended Miller’s driver’s license for 10 years and fined him $1,000. Miller could have been sentenced to 51/2 years in prison.
“We know for a fact you did not intend to cause the death of Mr. Barbour,” McIntosh told Miller. “Clearly, you are no monster, but you did commit a crime and you have to step up and take the consequences. To not have imposed a prison sentence would have demeaned the seriousness of the matter.”
Former TV news anchor Gabe Spiegel, a passenger in Miller’s pickup, testified that the two had been drinking throughout the night before the pre-dawn incident.
Barbour’s mother, Carol Barbour, told the judge that, although she knew that Miller didn’t intend to kill her son, “an innocent person was destroyed” and life will never be the same for her.
Barbour’s sister, Diane Barbour Davidson of St. Joseph, Mich., said her brother had just retired and was looking forward to taking a coast-to-coast bike ride when “Steve’s life was tragically and senselessly taken by Miller.”
She said she wasn’t seeking revenge, but “I do want justice for Steve.”
Cycling buddy Robert Fenton, 78, said he’d been riding with Barbour for 25 years and considered him one of the most-influential cyclists in central Ohio.
“We’re pleased it’s been vigorously prosecuted,” said Fenton, of Upper Arlington. “We wanted serious jail time.”
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