‘A fair and thoughtful sentence’: Driver in JMU crash that killed three students to serve 90 days in jail
VENN
HARDY COUNTY, W. Va. (WRIC) -- The man charged in connection to the crash that killed three James Madison University students was sentenced to serve 90 days in regional jail. He will also be on probation for seven years, with random drug and alcohol screening.
Campbell Ryan Fortune of Henrico County was charged with one count of negligent homicide and speeding -- both misdemeanor charges. Fortune was charged after crashing into a tree along West Virginia Route 259 in Hardy County on February 2, 2023. He was 19 at the time.
Nineteen-year-old John “Luke” Fergusson of Richmond, 19-year-old Nicholas Troutman of Henrico County, and 20-year-old Joshua Mardis of Williamsburg all died at the scene. One other passenger, Baird Weisleder, survived.
Fortune, now 21, was originally facing seven charges, including three counts of negligent homicide, before the plea deal was made in February of this year. The families of the three victims said they told prosecutors they were against a plea deal.
The three families of the victims released the following joint statement:
"The Court’s sentence is the first small measure of justice our families have received in West Virginia since the horrible night we lost our sons. We opposed the plea deal from the beginning. And we knew that nothing that happened today would end our suffering or help us make sense of our terrible losses. But we are grateful to the Court for listening to our families, considering the evidence, and imposing a fair and thoughtful sentence."
The three JMU students killed in the 2023 car crash are Joshua Mardis, Nicholas Troutman and Jonh "Luke" Fergusson, respectively.
Court documents said that on the night of the crash, a group of around 50 men affiliated with the Pi Beta Chi fraternity drove 45 minutes from JMU to the Paradise City Gentlemen’s Club in Hardy County.
After spending an hour there, the group headed back to campus. Fortune crashed going 95 miles per hour just four miles from the club, according to court documents.
Court documents also say Fortune did not have alcohol in his system, but witnesses saw him smoking marijuana and investigators later found nitrous oxide, or "whippets," on the driver’s side floorboard. Fortune's attorney filed a motion for the court to exclude any evidence involving the whippets when the case was still set to go to trial.
The families also filed wrongful death lawsuits in Henrico County Circuit Court on Jan. 8 against the JMU chapter of Pi Beta Chi fraternity and its president, John Marshall, for wrongful deaths each for $150 million.
