Teen in court on manslaughter charge, now out on bond
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BY LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star
Ricky Turco limped up to Judge Jean Lovell’s bench Friday morning, making his first court appearance on a manslaughter charge for a crash March 26 that left 15-year-old Megan Churchill dead.
Turco’s wife, Naomi, and his mom, Bernice, as well as Megan’s mother and grandmother, watched from seats in the tiny jail courtroom as prosecutor Krista Ideus read the charge and the one-to-20-year sentence that goes with a conviction.
Asked if he understood, Turco, 17, said he did.
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By noon, the high school dropout who since October has racked up enough points to lose the driver’s license he never got would post $2,500 bond and go home; his next court date set for April 26.
Before the hearing, Turco sat outside the courtroom and talked about that Monday afternoon last month.
He’d picked up some friends from Lincoln High a little after 3. Austin Jones was in the front, Josh Rice and Megan in the back.
“They were talking about going over the hill, so we went over in that direction,” he said, referring to a hilly part of Stockwell Street.
He’d gone over the hill the night before, he said, and his friends wanted to try it.
Turco said he drove the three miles south and west to Stockwell Street at about 18th, then built up speed to go over the hill.
He said he was going about 60 mph.
“I slowed down a little bit before I jumped it. I jumped the hill and there was this truck in front of me that I would have crashed into ... but I swerved out of the way.”
He doesn’t remember what happened next.
“I didn’t wake up until I was being put in the ambulance. I heard Austin screaming and they were putting me in the back. I was asking them what happened.
“I had no idea.”
Jones and Rice were both hospitalized after the accident, but their status is unknown.
If he hadn’t blacked out, Turco said, he could have slammed on the brakes and missed the tree.
He said he feels bad about what happened.
“I mean, no one wanted it to happen. It wasn’t something that someone saw coming. But when you do things like that you put your own life in your hands.
“I don’t like hurting people or anything like that. Nobody knew it was going to happen.”
Turco said he’s tried to get his permit to drive several times, but he can’t pass the test. It asks all kinds of questions that have nothing to do with driving, he said.
He said he’ll try again, but Beverly Neth, director of the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles, said he’s lost that privilege for at least six months. A 17-year-old, she said, can only accumulate six points for driving infractions within two years.
Turco tallied a point for each of eight convictions for driving without a license between October and this week. He also picked up five points for reckless driving and four for leaving the scene of an accident in October, among other things.
Turco said he drives without a license because sometimes he needs to go places when there’s no one to drive. Lots of people do it, he said.
“You can ask the people that drive with me,” he said. “I’m a really good driver.”
He’s not sure what will happen to him.
“I don’t think I should be put away for it,” he said. “’Cause technically I didn’t kill anybody.”
While he talked, his mom Bernice, who would not give her last name, waited with her daughter-in-law.
His mother says she has broken down and cried her eyes out a couple of times since the March 26 accident. She has also talked with her sister about starting a prayer chain.
“That’s all I’m able to do,” Turco’s mother said.
You can teach kids about right and wrong, she said, but you can’t make them listen.
She added that she thinks Megan’s death affected her son more than he lets show.
“I understand a lot of people are angry. But my son’s had his life threatened. ... He was just the only person behind the wheel.”
In court, Turco’s attorney, Franklin Miner, asked Lancaster County Judge Lovell for three weeks before Turco’s next court date to allow time to have his client evaluated. He did not say what kind of evaluation.
Ideus asked Lovell to set his percentage bond at $40,000 because of a history of failing to appear on traffic cases and because he has picked up another ticket for driving without a license since Megan died.
The judge noted the county attorney’s office originally let Turco simply sign a ticket agreeing to appear. Marcie Hagerty of the county attorney’s office stepped in to say previously Turco needed medical treatment that would have made it difficult for the Lancaster County Juvenile Detention Center to care for him.
But now, she said, he’s out driving around.
Miner said Turco missed one court hearing because of a fractured hip, and added that his client has taken steps to address his other traffic cases and acknowledges this is a serious case.
“I’m concerned with the allegation that there’s been continued driving,” said Lovell. She set bond at $25,000 and included a condition that Turco not drive.
Peggy Jackson, Megan’s grandmother, said she hopes Turco ends up in jail. Her granddaughter was full of life and spunk, she said, and that all came to an end.
“I think he should have to pay and pay severely,” Jackson said.
The minister at Megan’s funeral on Thursday talked about forgiveness, she said, but it’s hard to think about that just now.
Megan’s father, Vernon Churchill of Texas, was in Lincoln Friday but said he missed the hearing because it was moved from 2 p.m. to 10 a.m.
“I wanted to see this young man’s face and to see him being led out of the courtroom knowing that he was going to jail and that justice is going to be served.”
Chief Deputy County Attorney Joe Kelly said he asked that Megan’s parents be notified. Her mother, Alisa Heath, was, but Kelly’s office didn’t get word the parents were at separate numbers.
“We did the best we could.”
Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.
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