Vehicle searched in fatal crash

By JEFFREY SIMMONS/Staff

Wythe County’s top prosecutor confirmed this week that police are looking into whether “dusting” – inhaling cans of compressed gas to get high – could have played a role in last weekend’s head-on crash that killed two sisters.
On Wednesday, state police collected a can of Clean Safe Dust Remover from 19-year-old Ashley Paynter’s Chrysler 300, one of the two vehicles involved in a Sunday evening wreck on Chapman Road near Mark IV Honda, according to a search warrant. In an e-mail response to a question about the warrant, Commonwealth’s Attorney Jerry Mabe said police and prosecutors are investigating whether the can of product used to clean computer keyboards and other items and misused by inhaling the fumes contributed to the collision.
“…I don’t have a charging decision just yet. I should know more in a few days,” he wrote.
Officers also seized a straw with white powder residue from the Chrysler, which police said crossed the center line and struck a Nissan pickup, killing 53-year-old Judy Camper and 49-year-old April McAllister.
In applying for the search warrant, Trooper B.R. Edwards, who investigated the wreck, listed the possible offense as “shoplifting.”
He said the lone passenger in the Chrysler – 21-year-old Linda “Lindy” Reeves – and an accomplice were caught on Walmart’s surveillance cameras concealing two cans of “propellant” shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday. The wreck happened at 5:27 p.m. the same day, police said.
“When questioned by Special Agent Brad Burnette of the Virginia State Police, Linda Reeves changed her story as to whether any propellant was taken/purchased during her visit to the aforementioned (Wytheville) Walmart store on Oct. 25, 2009,” Edwards wrote. “…I also observed a propellant can inside the Chrysler.”
The search warrant doesn’t identify the other person accused of shoplifting the cans of cleaner.
Earlier this year, Paynter, who was driving the Chrysler in Sunday’s fatal crash and had to be airlifted to a Roanoke hospital for treatment of her injuries, was banned from the same Wytheville Walmart after being convicted of shoplifting, according to court records.
Documents, though, don’t say what she was convicted of taking from the store. She was given a two-day jail sentence and ordered to pay $27.46 in restitution, which she did.
Paynter was listed in fair condition on Friday afternoon at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, a spokesman said.
Reeves, who was treated and released on Sunday evening, listed her mood as “worried” on her MySpace page this week after the crash.
“To evryone (sic) who is blaming me for the lives lost, it was not my fault,” she wrote. “I was not even driving, but my prayers are with you all.”
According to news accounts, individuals across the U.S. have died and been charged with vehicle-crash-related crimes after misusing compressed gas dusting products.
According to inhalant.org, a Web site dedicated to stopping the abuse of common household products, “the effects of inhaling can be severe.”
“Within minutes, the user experiences feelings of intoxication and may become dizzy, have headaches, abdominal pain, limb spasms, lack of coordination, loss of control, hallucinations and impaired judgment,” the site said.
Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 228-6611 or .