Beasley found guilty in fatal street race trial

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: August 26, 2008

STAUNTON – Cory Beasley was found guilty by a 10-woman, two-man jury today of participating in a street race that caused the death of an Augusta County teenager last fall.
Jurors decided, under Virginia code 46.2-865.1, Beasley engaged in a race “in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life” in causing the death of 18-year-old Brittany Engleman.

Beasley’s, 23, fate is back in the hands of the jury as they deliberate his sentence. He can get anywhere from 1 to 20 years.

Beasley was one of three men – along with Robert Gaylor and Torrance Mack – that went for a drive in the early morning hours of Oct. 23, 2007. Beasley ultimately lost control of his car – a 2006 Chevy Cobalt Supersport – on Va. 42 near Buffalo Gap High School around 4 a.m. His car flipped several times before landing along the side of the road.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robin Boylan said it was through Beasley’s “criminal negligence” that he killed Engleman, a passenger in Beasley’s car. Not wearing a seatbelt, Englman was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

Virginia State Police Trooper T.M. Simmons said he found her body about 10 to 15 feet from the car. He went to Augusta Medical Center to talk with Beasley.

Simmons said Beasley admitted to drinking “some alcohol” and taking Vicodin that wasn’t prescribed to him, but said Beasley did not admit to racing.

In his opening statement, Boylan likened the case to “a jigsaw puzzle that you’ve never seen before.”

According to testimony, Beasley and Gaylor exchanged places out in front, with Mack’s car behind the two, before Gaylor, with his friend Tim Bryson in his car, went ahead of the other two cars.
Taking the stand in his own defense, Beasley said he paused – but did not stop – as he and Mack entered onto Va. 42. Beasley said Mack’s headlights were blinding him and wanted Mack to go ahead of him. Mack went ahead of him and soon after, Beasley said he lost control of his car on the loose gravel and flipped his car several times before landing on the side of the road in a ditch.

Beasley said he had shifted into second gear and then “accelerated to get in front of [Mack]. I just lost control.” He estimated his speed at about 60 mph just before the accident.

Trooper Clifford Thomas, part of an accident reconstruction team, said he analyzed Beasley’s car. He said he was not able to determine its speed but testified that the Cobalt, at five seconds before the crash, was at 5,760 rpm, with the accelerator deployed at 97 percent and the throttle at 100 percent. Those figures, one second before the crash, were 3,776 rpm, with the accelerator at 0 perecnt and the throttle at 23 percent.

Thomas McPherson, Beasley’s attorney, argued that the loose gravel on the road due to a Virginia Department of Transportation project on Va. 42 caused Beasley to lose control of his car. McPherson also argued that no one driving the road at the time of the incident saw a sign indicating there was loose gravel.

VDOT Superintendent Danny Martin testified that there, in fact, was a sign on both ends of the road where the project was taking place. He said VDOT was doing patchwork at various points along that road to prepare for winter. Simmons said he also noticed the signs while investigating the crash.

Lindsay Cash, riding with Mack at the time of the accident, said Mack’s car reached “about 100” mph. She, too, testified that she had been drinking in the hours before the accident – several Alabama slammers, she said. Boylan later characterized her drinking as the equivalent to one glass of wine. Under cross-examination from McPherson, she couldn’t recall the exact amount.

Cash also testified that she had heard either Mack or Beasley mention something about racing just before the accident when the two paused in the road, but McPherson got her to acknowledge that she didn’t understand anything the two were talking about.

Cash also said she heard Beasley tell the other people to not “tell the cops that we were racing.”

Beasley denied saying that, but did say that he yelled out “I killed her” at the scene. Beasley said he uttered those words because he was driving the car; McPherson said in his closing argument that Beasley did that out of a sense of responsibility.

McPherson, in his closing argument, said Cash’s testimony lacked credibility. 

“There’s a lot of ragged edges in Lindsay Cash’s testimony,” McPherson said. No one other than Cash, he said, acknowleged anything about racing.

Boylan argued in his closing argument that it was “symptomatic” of the defense’s case that it was trying to blame everyone from VDOT to Cash in Engleman’s death – everyone but Beasley, he said.
McPherson said the jury shouldn’t seek revenge because Engleman died.

Boylan countered, saying he wasn’t asking for revenge, “but for justice.”