Citrus jury finds driver guilty in biker's death

By BILL VARIAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 9, 2000

INVERNESS -- James Quinn's Honda motorcycle stood Friday much as it did two years ago, when a man friends called Shamus mounted it on a warm June night for his last ride.

But, the rear fender was twisted sideways, the seat was folded unnaturally forward and the right handlebar was bent toward the gas tank. And it rested in a third-floor Citrus County courtroom before six jurors as attorneys picked over it.

There, the three men and three women of the jury returned a guilty verdict. The jury concluded Howard Russell Bonine, 56, was drunk the night he plowed into the back of the bike shortly after 10:30 p.m. on June 2, 1998.

"I'm so happy," said Linda Durkee, a fellow bike rider and friend of Quinn's. "Shamus always believed in justice. If anyone deserved justice, he did."

Bonine looked on expressionless, in a beige suit, purple shirt and tie, as the jury returned its verdict after three days of testimony and five hours of deliberations. He faces up to 18 years in prison on a conviction of driving under the influence resulting in manslaughter. He is scheduled for sentencing April 26.

Investigators said Bonine rear-ended Quinn near W Emerald Oaks Drive on U.S. 19 while both were heading north toward their homes.

Quinn, 46, an avid biker, had just gotten off work as a secretary at Seven Rivers Community Hospital and was headed toward Inglis on his 1984 Honda Magna. Bonine had stopped off at the Crystal River McDonald's after visiting a friend's home, and in Dunnellon, where he told the Florida Highway Patrol he had two beers. He was driving an older model Chevrolet Malibu Classic.

The collision in the right lane of U.S. 19 sent Quinn's bike rocketing forward, "like a shotgun blast," said Cpl. Leo Wells, the lead investigator for the Florida Highway Patrol. Quinn died at the scene after his bike flew forward more than 200 feet.

Blood samples taken from Bonine two hours after the accident had a blood-alcohol level of 0.226 percent, nearly three times the level at which the state presumes someone is impaired. Though the defense did not put on any witnesses, Bonine's attorney, Bruce Carney, assailed errors in the investigation while questioning prosecution witnesses. They included an incorrect location for the accident given in a Highway Patrol report. Assistant State Attorney Lisa Herndon acknowledged there were mistakes in the written reports from the investigation but said each was minor. "Mr. Carney has taken a microscope and has put it so close that you can't see the big picture," Herndon said. "It's a shot in the arm to divert your attention."

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