Drunk Dad Kills Daughter By Dragging Her Behind Pickup

[Thing 0]

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21386988/

 

Dad charged in 9-year-old girl's sledding death

After drinking, man pulled daughter in an inner tube behind pickup truck

 

VANCOUVER, Wash. - Authorities charged a man Friday with vehicular

homicide in a sledding accident that killed his 9-year-old daughter last

winter.

 

 

Peter Gecho was pulling the girl, Madison, in an inner tube behind his

pickup truck when the tube slammed into a low brick wall Jan. 16,

according to Clark County Superior Court documents. Witnesses told police

Gecho had been drinking and that the girl was not wearing a helmet,

prosecutors contend.

 

 

The inner tube was attached to the truck by a rope as Gecho drove along

snowy country roads to Thomas Jefferson Middle School, Senior Deputy

Prosecutor James David wrote in a probable cause affidavit. Several other

people were in the bed of the truck.

 

 

On the school grounds, Gecho revved the engine and began spinning

"doughnuts" as the tube sailed behind. The tube slammed against a low

brick wall at an estimated 20 mph, killing the girl. An 18-year-old man

also riding in the tube soared over the wall and suffered only bruises.

 

 

Gecho's lawyer, Thomas Phelan, called the charge "a travesty." He said

his client is innocent and would never have deliberately harmed Madison.

 

 

"This was nothing but a tragic accident," he said. "His life has been, as

one might expect, incredibly empty since his daughter died. This simply

adds to the emptiness."

Even if the guy wasn't drunk, it's pretty clear that dragging your nine-year-old daughter on a sled attached to your pick-up truck while you're drunk is an incredibly dumb idea. He obviously wouldn't have intended to kill his daughter though, but isn't being reckless enough intent in the eye of the law?

[rayzoredge 2]

The world makes me sick.Some of these people seriously are either unfit to be parents or shouldn't be breeding anyway.Adding an overrated, underestimated substance into the mix doesn't help at all.I hope he gets the maximum punishment he can get. And I have no sympathy, because if he was such an innocent person open to accidents and impaired judgment, he would have known to not drink excessively around his children. Or even at all.And if he was an upstanding individual with this one slip-up, I'm sure he still deserves the guilt on his head for choosing to drink around his kids plus the legal punishment bestowed on him.And lawyers really need to look inside their own black hearts to see how they can live to defend such scum (if he was really unfit to be a parent).Gah.

[Liam_CF 0]

Only in america would something like this happen.He was right to be charged, although it wasn't deliberate.

[truefusion 3]

If he really cared about his daughter, wouldn't he have turned himself in instead of hiring a lawyer? He must really be sorry about his daughter's death by letting a lawyer deal with this.

[mc05w37 0]

dude, that wa wicked.

[teknoTom 0]

dude, that wa wicked.

You know, with the way you said it, it sounded like you were saying it was good??

[Thing 0]

And lawyers really need to look inside their own black hearts to see how they can live to defend such scum (if he was really unfit to be a parent).

Some people wouldn't mind, aslong as there's some sort of pay check, I guess.

[Lyon2 0]

That is horrible, the man should be arrested for life minimum, not to say that the death penalty would be soft stuff for him, killing is child is just something way behond anything that even the devil in person would do.I do not like to hear news like this, it just scares me like a father that i want to be, i just can not imagine that there are people out there capable of anything, i just can not beleave it too, nonetheless, there are, and plenty of them, perhaps even worst, that is just the human nature!

[chaosdesign 0]

There are several aspects to this case.The first is the guy Consumed Alcohol, then preceded to drive his Pickup while drunk.The second is that through his own actions has ended the life of his 9 year old daughters life.Regardless if it was intentional or by accident, he shouldn't have been driving the pick-up while intoxicated, and if he didn't drive the pickup his daughter would still be alive.If this guy gets off, then anyone who kills some one while DIC, would have the same argument.in saying all this the fact of the matter is that he killed his daughter while driving his pickup while drunk. There is no excuse for that.

[happy_cube 0]

This is just sickening and shows why alcohol should have more restrictions on it.

Edited November 8, 2007 by happy_cube (see edit history)

[Liam_CF 0]

This idiot obviously didn't deserve to be a father. He didn't even deserve to own the pickup.It makes me sick that people like this live and spawn children.Eeeeugh.

[Omegashine 0]

This idiot obviously didn't deserve to be a father. He didn't even deserve to own the pickup.
It makes me sick that people like this live and spawn children.

Eeeeugh.

Alcoholism ruins lifes and breaks families apart and It's a shame people don't realize what they are doing before there life gets ruined.

[Sprnknwn 0]

It amazes how alcohol is used as an atenuant in terrible things like this. When I get drunk I don't get violent, nor I do things that could risk others like... not to say things like this, at the same time ridiculous and sick. Yes, I'm not alcoholic or addicted but anyway I doubt that you can get to those extremes... and with no purpose.

[anwiii 17]

boy oh boy. well, he will definately not get off. there are three types of man slaughter. voluntary, involuntary and vehicular. voluntary is usually associated with "crimes of passion" where you caught your wife with another man in bed together, you snap and kill one or both. it's not murder because the crime of passion(under so much emotion) is considered temporary insanity....but for legal purposes they don't call it temporary insanity.voluntary can also be asociated somewhat like murder but without the premeditation or the planned act of the killing. involuntary are usually ALL accidents. if you get in a bar fight and break a bottle over someones head, killing them, that is involuntary manslaughter or can be argued as such. vehicular manslaughter any killing done by a car and usually carries a higher sentance than voluntary or involuntary manslaughter only because a car is a dangerous weapon and can be used against anyone and anyone who gets behind the wheel of a car assumes that it is.this man killed his child and injured another. i'm sure this man is being charged with more than 1 charge and he will not get off. there are extenuating circumstances which he will probably prove that it wasn't intentional, but he still killed someone. since it wasn't intentional, he should not serve LIFE in prison. jeeez....lion....what country are you from?!?!? he should definately get a hefty snetence....7 years is fair. he can only hope he still has a family when he gets out.what a dispicable thing he did and at the same time, i feel sorry for him knowing it was his own daughter, his own flesh and blood, and a part of him will always be missing because he wasn't responsible 1 day.....just out to have some fun i guess and never ever expected this to be the result. yes, i feel sorry for him too. probably not a bad hearted guy but he must serve some punishment for not being responsible

[Tetraca 0]

Keelhauling is barbaric by itself, but on land? This guy is just crazy and having that enhanced by an opiate, and not only that, he's being a dip for all of us because now people are going to call for tougher restrictions on alcohol. I guaruntee you, if this were any other drug (let's say a new drug), congress would be all over it and ban it, but since this is alcohol, it gets a by. At least they don't defacate on the constitution's seperation of federal and state laws with alcohol's status.