Franklin Co. Man Found Not Guilty of Vehicular Homicide

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

A Franklin County jury finds a Canon man not guilty of Homicide by Vehicle in the First Degree and Reckless Driving in 2015 deaths of two high school seniors.

However, the jury did find 19-year old Samuel Parten guilty of Failure to Maintain Lane and Driving too Fast for Conditions.

After a week long trial, the jury returned its verdict Friday afternoon.

Parten was charged with vehicular homicide in the January 2015 deaths of 17-year old Timothy Hartman and 17-year old Maleke Moon both of Canon.

All three were seniors at Franklin County High School at the time of the fatal wreck.

According to Georgia State Patrol Hartwell Post Commander Sgt. Al Whitworth, Parten’s pick up was traveling west on Jackson Bridge Road in Franklin County at a high rate of speed when he hit a curve and lost control.

Whitworth says the vehicle traveled off the right side of the roadway, rolled down an embankment and hit a tree.

Hartman and Moon were pronounced dead at the scene.

Parten was also injured and hospitalized.

Testimony by GSP investigators stated Parten was going at least 80 miles per hour at the time he lost control.

However, an expert witness for the defense, Dwayne Canupp of Canupp’s Accident Reconstruction & Investigative Services, L.L.C. in Villa Rica, testified that based on his independent investigation done 10 months after the accident, Parten could not have been going more than 45 to 50 miles an hour.

He told the jury his investigation lasted about five days in December of last year and was based on the photos, diagrams, data points, maps, speed work ups, and reports of the accident filed by the GSP SKIRT investigators.

Under cross examination, Canupp admitted he did not actually visit the accident scene at the time it happened, but was hired some 10 months later, in November 2015.

After the jury rendered its verdict, Parten was sentenced to 24 months of probation, 200 hours of community service and a fine.

On Friday, Northern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Parks White said his office respects the jury’s decision.