Mar 13, 2008

The Herald learned this week that Zachery R. Petty, 22, Ava, was sentenced on Dec. 7, 2007, to five years in the Department of Corrections for the death of Miya Lea Frye, 17, Squires, in August 2006. Petty, whose case was transferred to Wright County on a change of venue from Douglas County, pleaded guilty to involuntary vehicular manslaughter on Oct. 7, 2007, and was sentenced in December by 44th Judicial Circuit Judge John Moody. Thomas Cline, of Gainesville, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case, said the five-year sentence was consistent with what he requested of the court. Cline told the Herald there was no stipulation in the sentence for parole. Miss Frye died in a wreck that occurred at 6:45 a.m. Aug. 6, 2006, on Highway 14, eight miles west of Ava. A report released by the Missouri State Highway Patrol said Petty was driving the 1991 Chevrolet Lumina in which Miss Frye was a passenger. Also injured in that crash was another passenger, Jared W. Frye, 20, of Springfield. The patrol report also said Petty’s blood alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit at the time of the wreck, which resulted in manslaughter charges being filed by then-prosecutor Christopher Swatosh. At the time of the wreck, authorities said Petty denied that he was driving the car. But information obtained in an investigation by Highway Patrol Sgt. Keith Jones put Petty behind the wheel of the car, and subsequently led to charges being filed the day after the fatal crash.