Teen sentenced in fatal hit-and-run
The teenager charged in the hit-and-run accident that killed a 3-year-old boy in a Pablo trailer park on Thanksgiving Day will serve six years of probation.
Chasen Kiaran Curley, who turned 18 on March 22, received a six-year deferred sentence for an amended offense of felony criminal endangerment in Lake County Youth Court on May 24.
Judge James A. Manley approved the plea agreement reached between prosecutors and defenders in the case, but added a stipulation requiring Curley to serve 300 hours of community service, according to court documents. Curley must also comply with a host of conditions, including regular drug and alcohol monitoring and weekly check-ins with Manley.
Court documents also indicate that Curley agreed to pay $14,500 in restitution to the victim’s family.
Curley was charged with backing his SUV into 3-year-old Phillip Shourd Jr. who was riding his bicycle in the Northwood Trailer Park on Thanksgiving Day. According to court documents and witnesses at the scene, Curley then accelerated forward, dragging Shourds Jr. about 30 feet in front of horrified bystanders, including the child’s father.
Shourds Jr. was pronounced dead at the scene, while Curley was apprehended later that day on back roads outside Ronan, according to documents.
Curley, who was 17 at the time of the accident, was originally charged with negligent homicide in Lake County District Court. The case was later transferred to Youth Court at the request of Curley’s attorneys, who argued that the teenager had experiences significant instability throughout his life.
On May 26, two days after Curley’s sentencing, the victim’s father, Phillip Shourds Sr., filed a lawsuit in Lake County District Court seeking punitive and compensatory damages from Curley, managers of the Northwood Trailer Park as well as the owners of the SUV involved in the accident.
The suit alleges that Curley was well documented as a dangerous driver and should not have been entrusted to drive the vehicle inside the park.
Northwood’s managers told the Lake County Leader at the time of the accident that they have battled speeding within the trailer park for years, however calls to law enforcement often went unanswered due to jurisdictional issues. Residents of the trailer park and surrounding community started various fundraising efforts to benefit the victim’s family following the incident.