17-year-old Dequan L. Leaman recently appeared in the Bay County Circuit Court and pled guilty to a single count of assault with a dangerous weapon, which is a four year felony. In return the prosecution has agreed not to pursue a charge of malicious destruction of property more than $1,000. Also, Judge Harry P. Gill has agreed to consider allowing Leaman status under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act status, which would mean he could serve jail time without being officially convicted, thus avoiding a criminal record.
The road rage incident that led to these charges took place on August 1st, at about 7:30 in the evening. 29-year-old Sean P. Daly was heading north on Bay City’s M13 in his red pickup truck, when a silver Honda Civic in front of him on the road began to brake and accelerate in a way that was obviously meant to goad him, and also prevent him from passing.
When he was finally able to pass the Honda, hoping to leave it behind and go about his business, the driver of the Honda began to tailgate him. Daly says that the Honda then passed him, it’s occupants giving him the finger, as they say, and then resumed it’s challenging brake-and-accelerate pattern again, right in front of him.
Daly says that as the two cars approached a traffic light, he began hunting for a pen and paper so that he could take down the Honda’s license plate number and report the driver’s behavior. And for this reason, he was distracted when the Honda braked sharply once again, and so ended up rear ending it instead of just taking down it’s information.
Daly pulled into a parking lot to resolve the issue
At this point both drivers stopped, and one of the occupants of the Honda came around and began pounding on Daly’s truck demanding that he get out of his vehicle. Daly pulled into a 7-11 parking lot, in the hopes of resolving the issue, and was followed by the Honda.
Then people got out of the Honda, surrounded Daly’s car and took to pounding on it, all of them demanding that he exit his vehicle. According to Daly, one of them was wielding a tire iron in a threatening manner. They told Daly he needed to get out so that they could beat him up, and that he was going to be killed for damaging the Honda. Daly refused to get out of his car.
At this point, police began receiving a number of calls about a fight that had broken out between two drivers. When officers arrived, both vehicles were still present at the 7-11. After attempting to establish what had happened by talking to the people involved and a number of witnesses, police arrested Leaman and the Honda driver, 19-year-old Jaspreet S. Chauhan.
Leaman is scheduled for sentencing at 8:30 on Monday morning, January 26th. Chauhan, on the other hand, has not accepted any plea agreements as of yet, and is scheduled for trial on January 13th.