Stephen Gates

Justice gone terribly wrong

Courtesy News Observer

Published: Nov 13, 2004 / Modified: Nov 13, 2004 5:30 AM

By BENJAMIN NIOLET, Staff Writer

HILLSBOROUGH -- A jury found a Raleigh man did not commit hit-and-run when he drove off in a truck that had just killed Stephen Gates, a reporter for the Tar Heel Sports Network who was changing his tire along Interstate 40. The Orange County jury acquitted Rabah Samara on Friday after two days of testimony about the events surrounding the death of Gates, 27, on Oct. 4, 2003. Witnesses agreed that Samara, 27, was a passenger in the Cadillac Escalade about 2:30 a.m. when it slammed into Gates, who had stopped along I-40 near Hillsborough. But after the driver of the Escalade, Emily Caveness, pulled over, Samara switched places with her and drove the truck to Raleigh. Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox made a deal with Caveness, 21, to allow her to plead to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report an accident in exchange for testifying against Samara. Fox tried to convince jurors that Samara was the one who decided to turn the accident into a hit-and-run. But Samara and others in the car testified that no one saw Gates or had any idea what had happened.

After his acquittal, Samara had a quiet, tearful conversation with Gates' parents. Dozens of family, friends and reporters leaned forward in the hushed courtroom to try to make out what was said. "I do not believe you when you say you didn't know," the mother, Pat Gates, said. "It's true," Samara said. Samara left the courtroom with a throng of friends.

Under the law, the jurors had to decide whether Samara was helping Caveness commit hit-and-run since he was not driving when Gates was struck. Gates' parents said they wanted to work for a change in state law to prevent Friday's outcome from happening again. "There is in this advice for drivers in North Carolina: If you hit someone, you do well to have a passenger take over and drive away," George Gates said. "The law as we heard it today is both of them walk away."

'A loud, loud noise' Samara is a former electrical engineering student at N.C. State University who manages a Subway restaurant to save money to go back to school. On the night of the accident, Samara and Caveness went separately to Durham for a party. Samara testified he had several drinks and shots.

After 11:30 p.m., Samara, Caveness and two others left. Caveness drove because she was the only one who had not been drinking. She was a student at NCSU and was lost in Durham. Their route to Raleigh took them to the junction of Interstates 85 and 40 near Hillsborough. Samara was drunk and asleep in the passenger seat. The two passengers in the back seat were busy talking. Sometime after 2 a.m., Gates was parked along I-40, his wheels just a few inches into the roadway on the acceleration lane. Caveness merged onto I-40, and the Escalade hit Gates and sheared off the door of his Saturn. "The next thing was a loud, loud noise. I felt it through my whole body," Samara testified Friday. Panic took hold of the four people in the car. Samara testified that Caveness was letting go of the wheel and everyone was yelling, asking what had happened. Samara coaxed her into pulling over, and he got out. A couple who had followed them down the road hollered. Bruce Cottrell testified that he told Samara they had hit someone. Samara testified he thought Cottrell was asking whether they had hit anyone. Samara looked at the front of the SUV, which was mangled by the impact. He got behind the wheel and drove away. A short distance from his home in Raleigh, Samara stopped at a well-lit gas station, and he saw for the first time traces of blood on the car, he said. None of the four knew anyone had been killed until Raleigh police officers stopped them, according to testimony.

No one else to charge Duncan McMillan, one of Samara's attorneys, told the jury that Samara could not be more responsible than Caveness. "If the prosecution made the right decision in dismissing the charges against her, then you must make the right decision and find him not guilty," McMillan said. The jury of nine women and three men deliberated about an hour. Samara could have been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor. Fox said after the verdict that Caveness did not do anything wrong when she hit Gates. It was an accident. And she eventually stopped the SUV, so he couldn't proceed with hit-and-run charges. After Samara left the courtroom, Pat Gates said she does not believe Samara has taken full responsibility for what happened. She attended nearly a dozen hearings as the case made its way through the court. And she has encouraged both Samara and Caveness to make a difference in the world, "to live a life worthy of the one they've taken," she said in an interview before the trial. "I told him I hope you will live a life worthy of being alive rather than our son," she said Friday. "He promised he would, as did Emily."

Frustrated father writes Letter to the Editor after defendant found not guilty of hit and run death

No justice on an N.C. roadside

By GEORGE GATES

GREENSBORO -- Our son, Stephen Gates, was killed on Interstate 40 at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 4 of last year. A white Cadillac Escalade roared from the darkness and crushed him as he stepped from his car at the side of the road to inspect a flat tire.

More than a year and countless courtroom hours later, no one seems to accept responsibility, and the law has failed us. True, one party, Emily Caveness, admits to failure to report an accident -- no different from denting a fender in a parking lot. The other, Rabah Samara, was acquitted last week of felony hit and run and misdemeanor hit and run. He has appealed his conviction for DWI related to that night.

We are struck speechless by the results of our courtroom experience. In response, I can only offer the following "advice" to North Carolina drivers:

Should you ever hit someone while driving, pull over farther down the road and allow a passenger -- no matter if he is drunk -- to take your place and drive away. Later, claim you were confused and frightened by a loud sound, and didn't know what had happened, even if two witnesses should see you drag your mangled victim and his car door skidding, tumbling, sparking for 165 feet. And even if those same witnesses stop you and tell your passenger (who should helpfully get out and speak with them in your stead), "You've hit somebody! You need to go back!" just say you didn't know.

According to the law as it now exists, neither of you will be convicted of felony hit and run. That requires that you 1) be driving; 2) hit someone; 3) know that you did; and 4) drive away. You are off the hook because you say you didn't know, and your friend is guiltless because he wasn't driving at the instant of impact. You'll walk away. Your victim, of course, will not.

It will help if you are portrayed from the start as a poor, lost, confused, frightened soul on a lonely, inky-dark road who stumbled into an unavoidable tragic mishap. The "unavoidable" part is a snap. You needn't worry about the loud music, tinted windows, open containers of alcohol and drunken passengers in the car you drive.

"Unavoidable" -- even if you do have 700 feet of unobstructed view before you "stumble" upon a car with its headlights, taillights and dome light lit. Even if it is clearly visible to witnesses farther away than you. That car should not have its flat tire recklessly parked a full 7 inches into the access ramp, thus surely blocking your lane plus the two empty lanes to your left. Avoid pulling to the right too; you might tear up the grass.

Even if you are already on the highway leading home, your friend should feel free to get off and drive around on back roads for several hours afterwards attempting to get his passengers safely home. Park near the woods behind a shopping center for a bit. Merely say you stopped to allow one of the passengers to urinate in the woods, and to puzzle quizzically over the mystery of your heavily damaged SUV. Stop later at a brightly lit location to again inspect the damage. Just call it a deer; that'll work.

And don't worry about the cell phones any of you could have used at any time but didn't. That won't matter later.

You and your friends won't be responsible for any of it. It will be something tragic that just happened. Like a hurricane just happens, or a comet falling from the sky just happens. Your behavior will have no consequences. Your decisions will have no consequences. Your inattention will have no consequences. The very fact that you were hysterical, or confused or even drunk will be in your favor. Claim you were so befuddled and befogged that you just didn't know what occurred. Nothing you did or failed to do will be held against you. The only behavior with consequences will be your victim's. He shouldn't have stood in your way. Now he's dead.

Quite a story to tell the next time you're at a crowded club with friends. Especially if you are terrified by policemen who have the gall to stop you and ask what you'd been up to that night.

So, dear driver, take this father's advice. Think carefully about how you hit someone on a North Carolina highway at night. If you do it right, it won't matter. It will just be one of those things that happen. Just one of those things that people will read about over their morning coffee or catch briefly on the evening news while they think, "Tsk, tsk, such a nice young man dead!" And it will fade quickly away. Unless you're the next victim of poorly written North Carolina law.

(George Gates is a business executive in Greensboro.)

source (courtesy of News Observer)

Deadly Roads - Hit and Run Crash