Families of three JMU students killed in 2023 crash react to driver’s plea deal, most charges dismissed
VENN
HARDY COUNTY, W. Va. (WRIC) -- The driver charged after a car crash that killed three James Madison University (JMU) students has accepted a plea deal, which dismisses most of the original charges.
Campbell Ryan Fortune of Henrico County, 21, accepted the plea deal on Feb. 25 in Hardy County Circuit Court in West Virginia, convicting him of one count of negligent homicide and one count of speeding, both misdemeanors.
In West Virginia, negligent homicide is punishable by up to one year in regional jail or a $100 to $1,000 fine. Speeding is punishable by an up to $100 fine.
The original charges filed against him on May 15, 2023, included three counts of negligent homicide, one count of reckless driving with injury, one count of underage possession of beer, one count of not having a certificate of insurance and one count of speeding. Fortune pleaded not guilty to all seven charges on May 25, 2023. His bond was set at $10,012, and he was bonded out by Jane Fortune the same day.
Fortune was charged at 19 years old after crashing into a tree along West Virginia Route 259, killing John “Luke” Fergusson of Richmond, 19, Nicholas Troutman of Henrico County, 19, and Joshua Mardis of Williamsburg, 20.
Joshua Mardis, Nicholas Troutman and John "Luke" Fergusson with sister Liza. (Courtesy of the Mardis, Troutman and Fergusson families.)
The families of the three men told 8News in a joint statement that they “strongly oppose” the plea deal, and that was “clearly expressed to the Hardy County Prosecutor [Jeffrey Weatherholt] prior to the plea offer.”
“Allowing Mr. Fortune to plead No Contest to one count of negligent homicide (a misdemeanor charge) for three deaths and reducing reckless driving to a speeding charge diminishes the gravity of this tragedy and is unfathomable to our families,” they said.
According to court documents, on Feb. 2, 2023, a group of approximately 40 members and pledges in the JMU Pi Beta Chi Fraternity (PBX) drove from Harrisonburg to Paradise City Gentlemen’s Club in Hardy County, W. Va., 45 minutes away.
According to JMU’s website, its chapter of Pi Beta Chi, also referred to as Delta Chi or the Cross Keys Society, lost recognition in fall 2013 due to hazing, specifically because of “forced calisthenics and underage drinking.”
Court documents stated, “Designated drivers were selected by the organizing fraternity and required to transport members and/or rushees to and from Paradise City.” Fortune was assigned to be one of the drivers and had four passengers in the car, including Fergusson, Troutman, Mardis and Travis Baird Weisleder of Richmond, who survived.
The men got to Paradise City around 9:10 p.m. and left an hour later to return to Harrisonburg, documents said.
Fortune was only four miles away from the club on Route 259 when court documents stated the car swerved partially off the southbound road and then swerved back into the northbound lane “violently crashing into a fence and a tree, causing the car to stand upright and pivot 180% around the tree. The force of the collision resulted in the immediate death of 3 passengers, and serious injuries to a fourth passenger [Weisleder] and Mr. Fortune himself.”
Records said Fortune was driving a 2016 Honda Accord and that the Event Data Recorder indicated to car’s speed went from 83 mph to 95 mph half a second before the crash. One witness driving on Route 259 said he saw the car traveling in the opposite lane “at a high rate of speed.”
Toxicology results for the three victims indicated heavy alcohol consumption. Documents stated Fortune did not have alcohol in his system, but law enforcement did not ask for a toxicological analysis to test for other substances. Documents said witnesses saw him smoking marijuana.
A few days after the crash, officers inspected the car and found an opened package of nitrous oxide (N2O), a used canister on the driver's side floorboard, and a cylinder-shaped metal object colloquially called a "cracker,” which is typically used in commercial kitchens for holding ingredients that are infused with nitrous oxide located under the driver's seat, documents said. This is more commonly known as “whippets.”
There is currently no valid way to test for whippets in someone’s system or how long there could be driving impairment after using whippets. It is not illegal to be in possession of N2O in West Virginia.
The three families of the victims were at the plea deal hearing in February and plan to be at Fortune’s sentencing on April 22 in Hardy County Circuit Court at 2:15 p.m.
The families also filed wrongful death lawsuits in Henrico County Circuit Court on January 8 against the JMU chapter of Pi Beta Chi fraternity and its president, John Marshall, for wrongful deaths each for $150 million.
