Potter pleads no contest in traffic death

COSHOCTON - A Coshocton man has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while intoxicated in the Dec.4 death of a pedestrian on South Sixth Street.

Friday afternoon, Common Pleas Judge Robert Batchelor found Terry L. Potter, 68, of 1849 S. Sixth St., guilty of those charges, suspended a six-month jail term on the vehicular homicide charge and sentenced Potter to serve three days in jail on the OVI. Batchelor fined Potter a total of $2,000 and credited him with serving three days in the Coshocton County Justice Center following his arrest last Dec.4. He placed Potter on one year's probation and suspended his driver's license for a year, but granted occupational driving privileges.

Potter, the owner of Potter Welding and Supplies in Coshocton, had originally been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony. He could have faced up to eight years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted on that charge.

Instead, he pleaded no contest Friday to two first-degree misdemeanors by a bill of information rather than being charged by an indictment.

Special Prosecutor Paul Scarsella of the Ohio Attorney General's Office represented the state in negotiating the deal. Scarsella said Potter had no previous record.

Defense attorney Sam Shamansky of Columbus said officials questioned whether the victim, 50-year-old Mark Scott of Coshocton, was in the roadway when he was struck and whether the drunk driving caused the accident.

The misdemeanor vehicular homicide charge alleges the death was caused through negligence, rather than as a result of drunk driving.

Shamansky called the loss of life "a super sad situation" and added his client "shouldn't have been driving. He shouldn't have been drinking."

Deputies said Scott and his son, Matthew Scott, 22, of Coshocton, had been walking along the 1000 block of S. Sixth St. at about 7:26 p.m that night when Potter hit both of them with his pickup truck. The younger Scott left the scene and was located later.

jwilliams6@gannett.com

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