ASTORIA, Ore. — A Westport man who killed another man following a road rage incident in October 2018 was sentenced Friday to more than six years in prison.
Jeffrey Stone, 68, killed Curtis Russell, 22, of Longview, after running him over with his Dodge truck and dragging his body for about a quarter-mile, The Astorian reported.
Stone was initially charged with murder and more than a half-dozen other charges.
After multiple settlement conferences, Stone on Friday pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, two counts of recklessly endangering another person and DUII.
On Halloween 2018, Russell was driving west on U.S. Highway 30 near Westport when he came up behind Stone’s vehicle and noticed signs of drunken driving, District Attorney Ron Brown said in court.
Russell passed Stone, and, as he did, Brown said it seemed to him and his passengers that Stone brushed Russell’s vehicle. Russell pulled over to exchange information, but Stone kept driving.
Russell then followed Stone, passed him and blocked Stone’s pickup truck. Brown said Russell got out of the vehicle and struck Stone’s truck several times with a bat.
Brown said Stone then drove toward Russell, knocking him under the truck and dragging him. Russell died at the scene from blunt force trauma.
Stone drove home and later returned to the scene and cooperated with police.
Stone, once the chief of the Westport Volunteer Fire Department, was convicted of arson and theft and sentenced to 17 months in prison after he set fire to business records in 2004 amid an accusation of embezzlement.
