CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Jeffrey Joiner, a Clarksville man charged with causing a fatal wreck in 2017 that killed three people, was sentenced last night to two days jail and a period of probation.

Megan Black, 20, Shayna Shidell, 19, and Randall Pierce, 21, were all killed in the Sept. 24, 2017 wreck  on Ashland City Road near Robin Hill Road .

Joiner entered a “best-interest” plea to three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of DUI in January 2020.

On Oct. 14, Joiner was sentenced to serve 2.7 years on state probation for each of the vehicular homicide charges. Each count will be served concurrently, or at the same time.

He was sentenced to 11 months, and 29 days in jail for the DUI conviction. However, Joiner will  have to serve 48 hours in jail. The remainder of the sentence will be suspended to state probation. This count will be served consecutive to the 2.7 years of probation.

Joiner’s total sentence is approximately three and a half years on state probation following his 2 days in jail.

He almost must pay a $350 and $10,000 fine, his drivers license will be suspended for three years, and he must undergo random drug screens while on probation and is not to drink alcohol.

Contestation of fault

The state called on a witness, Tennessee Highway Patrolman Paul Sanders, who was ruled an expert crash reconstructionist by Judge William Goodman. After much contestation over Sanders’s expertise from both Assistant District Attorney Karen Willis and Joiner’s lawyer Mark Olson said the debris field and fluid trail that was in Black’s lane of traffic indicated that the collision had taken place there.

“The cause of the crash was Mr. Joiner being in Ms. Black’s lane of traffic,” Sanders testified.

During cross examination, Olson argued that the pavement gouges in Joiner’s lane of traffic proved that the collision had taken place there.

Sanders refused to state that those marks equated to certainty of vehicle position at the time of the crash.

Sanders also testified to the speed each of the vehicles were traveling at the time of collision. Black’s Cobalt was traveling at 57 mph at the time, while Joiner’s Tundra was traveling at 79 mph.

The speed limit on Ashland City Road is 55 mph.

Dr. Robert Stammer, an expert for the defense, wrote a letter that was entered in as evidence. Stammer is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University, and Olson shared this letter to Clarksville Now.

His letter states, “My site visit revealed no evidence of pavement gouge marks which would have been indicative of vehicle positions at the time of the crash.”

Because Joiner is a Range I mitigated offender, which means he had no prior offense before this wreck, he was eligible for this type of reduced sentencing.

Expert testimony

Joiner hung his head throughout the majority of the hearing, crying at times when photographs of the crash were displayed.

ADA Willis first brought in Deputy Brandon Myers, former Tennessee Highway Patrol officer and  lead investigator in the wreck.

Myers testified that when he ran Joiner’s record, he discovered four previous speeding violations, and  traffic school on his record. Myers said the his observation of the wreck reconstruction did not conclusively explain who was at fault.

The next expert for the state was Dawn Swiney, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent and toxicologist. She was called in by ADA Willis to do a blood alcohol concentration extrapolation. Because Joiner’s blood was not tested until two hours after the crash, it is quite possible it would have been higher at the time of collision.

Swiney stated based on the rate that an average, healthy person such as Joiner processes the ethanol in their blood regularly, that his BAC could have been between 0.13 and 0.15 at the time of the crash.

Black, the driver of the Chevy Cobalt Joiner collided with, had a BAC of .12 at the time of the wreck.