Steven Murray crash/ Stephen Murray crash
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July 20th, 2008
Bail was set at half a million dollars Thursday morning for the man who crashed his truck into a bus stop — killing a woman.
If Stephen Murray gets out on bail, he’ll be on house arrest and will have to wear an electronic monitoring device to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.
Eyewitness News learned in court that 44-year-old Stephen Murray has had his driver’s license suspended seven times. The judge wants to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Because this time while he was behind the wheel someone died.
Robin Wynkoop’s mother, Patricia Hoff, was killed on Monday. “She was all I had out here, that was my family. I don’t have that to go home to. He gets to call home and talk to them. The only thing I have left of her is on my message to call her at work right before she died, and that was on Sunday night.”
She cried in court while she waited to see Stephen Murray — the man accused of crashing into the bus stop where her mom was waiting.
According to police he admitted to using valium, oxycontin and percocet. Attorneys argued over bail for Murray — the prosecutor pointed out that he has had four DUI’s in Texas, one a felony DUI. But blood tests for the presence of drugs are not done and neither is the criminal complaint, so the judge ordered the half million dollar bail.
“Mr. Murray presents a danger to society based upon his history and that he may very well constitute a flight risk,” said Judge Karen Bennett-Haron.
“I just don’t think he should be out on bail. This has happened more than once. I know how house arrest works. He can still get in a car, he can still be out on the street. He can still sit at home with his family,” said Wynkoop.
She says she blames his family for letting him out on the road. Murray faces 25 years to life if convicted under the new vehicular manslaughter law.
The prosecution is taking a while to get together the criminal complaint together. Apparently testing for those kinds of drugs can take up to 30 days. The prosecutor has asked to expedite the tests, but they still won’t be ready until Tuesday and the D.A. doesn’t feel comfortable filing the vehicular manslaughter charges until that’s complete.
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