News
Michigan Man Sentenced For Tampering In Pickaway County
By: Trish Bennett | Circleville Herald
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A Michigan man facing charges in the traffic death of a South Bloomfield woman last September was sentenced to prison Wednesday for attempted tampering with evidence at the scene of the crash.
Tracy Ferrell, 42, of Corunna, Michigan, was sentenced to 15 months in state prison for the crime on Wednesday by Judge P. Randall Knece in Pickaway County Common Pleas Court.
Ferrell is still awaiting a pretrial hearing July 17 in Circleville Municipal Court on the charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Amy Jo Schneider, 42, of South Bloomfield, on U.S. Route 23 near DuPont.
Though the tampering charge was a felony, the involuntary manslaughter charge is a second-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail.
Schneider was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash that occurred about 1:20 a.m. Sept. 11, 2013. She was the driver of one of three vehicles stopped at the traffic light when she was struck from behind by Ferrell’s Freightliner tractor-trailer.
According to reports from the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, the crash pushed Schneider’s Toyota Corolla into a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Karen Kindle, 59, of Rushsylvania, which was then pushed into a 2005 Dodge Durango driven by Francis Shirey, 49, of Circleville, which flipped onto its top.
Shirey was treated for injuries at Berger Hospital and released the same day. Kindle was transported by Pickaway Plains Ambulance Service to Grant Medical Center in Columbus for treatment of more serious injuries.
Ferrell was arrested for tampering with evidence for ripping out a sheet in his log book and hiding it in a junction box along the roadway following the crash.
Rescue crews extinguished at least two small fires during the process of extricating Schneider’s body from the wreckage, which took several hours to accomplish.