2008 Woodie Awards
Former Mesa Student Pleads Guilty in Death of Mesa Freshman
Clarissa Lock
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: News
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Eric Joseph Leeman, 21, admitted to a hit-and-run collision that killed then-Mesa freshman Whitney Young, 19. Young was struck by a car on Nov. 12, 2006, near the Montezuma Road and Rockford Drive intersection in the College Area and died at Scripps Mercy Hospital four days later.
Leeman faces 9 to 15 years in prison and will be sentenced on Sept. 25 at the San Diego Central Division Superior Court.
Police arrested Leeman on the day of Young's death after matching a car part from the scene to Leeman's BMW. Leeman originally pleaded not guilty to felony hit-and-run charges last Nov. 20.
Murder and gross vehicular manslaughter charges were later added after it was established that alcohol had been involved. If Leeman had been convicted at trial, he would have faced 15 years to life.
The murder and hit-and-run charges were dropped when he changed his plea to guilty.
At the preliminary hearing in March, witnesses testified that Leeman had been drinking heavily at a party near San Diego State University before he struck Young around 3:15 a.m., according to the 10news Web site. Witnesses at the scene reported hearing his car accelerate before it hit Young and then drove away. Leeman told police when questioned that he thought at the time that he might have hit a raccoon.
According to an earlier story in The Mesa Press, heavy drinking was not uncommon for Leeman. Leeman posted pictures of himself drinking alcohol on his myspace.com page and wrote, "Drinking and smoking is always great. I'm a laid back kind of guy who's enjoyin' the crazy college lifestyle. Most people know me as a die hard Bay Area sports fan or a drunken idiot at a party." The myspace.com page has since been removed.
At the preliminary hearing, Deputy District Attorney Allison Worden revealed that Leeman had a prior DUI, and the judge raised Leeman's bail from $225,000 to $300,000. After Leeman pleaded guilty last month, his bail was raised to $750,000, the 10news Web site reports.
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