Oak Ridge Today

State asks for 11-year sentence in fatal July 4 parking lot crash

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Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, of Oak Ridge, has been charged with vehicular homicide and eight counts of aggravated assault in a fatal parking lot crash at the Midtown Community Center in Oak Ridge after fireworks on July 4, 2015. Cromwell has been on trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton, starting Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, and continuing through Wednesday, Feb. 15. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Lee Harold Cromwell, 67, of Oak Ridge, was convicted of vehicular homicide and eight counts of aggravated assault in a fatal parking lot crash at the Midtown Community Center in Oak Ridge after fireworks on July 4, 2015. Cromwell was convicted at the end of a three-day jury trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton, starting Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, and continuing through Wednesday, Feb. 15. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

CLINTON—Prosecutors have asked for an effective 11-year sentence for the Oak Ridge man convicted of one count of vehicular homicide and eight counts of aggravated assault in the fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015.

The crash killed a father of two, James Robinson, 37, of Knoxville, who was trying to push his daughters to safety, and it injured eight others. It’s one of the worst crashes anyone can remember in Oak Ridge.

Lee Harold Cromwell, 67, was convicted of the vehicular homicide and aggravated assault charges after a three-day trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton in February, and he was scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday. But the sentencing hearing was postponed because Cromwell did not want private attorney James Scott representing him anymore. A public defender has been appointed instead.

A new date hasn’t been set yet for the rescheduled sentencing hearing. The public defender will need time to review the case and the transcript of the three-day trial in mid-February before he or she can represent Cromwell at sentencing. [Read more…]

DA’s office also recused from July 4 fatal crash case because of liens filed by defendant

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Anderson County Criminal Court Lee Cromwell Jim Scott July 25 2016

Lee Cromwell, right, who has been charged with vehicular homicide and 16 other charges after a fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015, huddles with his family and defense attorney James Scott, left, after an arraignment in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday, July 25, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 11:47 a.m. July 27.

CLINTON—First the judge recused himself and now the district attorney general’s office has been recused in a homicide case filed against an Oak Ridge man after a fatal crash in the crowded parking lot of Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015.

Both recusals were because of liens filed by the defendant, Lee Harold Cromwell, 66. The recusals mean another judge has already been appointed, and another DA will have to be appointed. A lien is a claim that one person owes something to another person.

Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Donald R. Elledge recused himself during a June 3 arraignment because of an $8 million lien filed against him by Cromwell.

“It was upsetting that he filed a frivolous lien against me,” Elledge said Monday. “I’m going to do everything I can legally, morally, and ethically to prosecute him criminally and civilly to the full extent of the law.”

Then, during a rescheduled arraignment on Monday, defense attorney James K. Scott asked for Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark and the DA’s office to also be recused. That was because of liens that Cromwell filed against the DA and another member of his office in “misplaced mindset” in a “misguided effort, out of desperation, to advocate for his innocence without the knowledge or advice of counsel,” Scott said in a motion to recuse. [Read more…]