 Photos by Kelly Daniels and Brian Hawkins/SDN Top, an emotional Maria Ball, center, leaves the courtroom after Judge Jim Kitchens sentenced former Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks officer Ryan Crick to 60 years in prison on multiple aggravated DUI charges and a charge of leaving the scene of the accident in the January 2008 crash that killed her daughter, Jessica Burks, 27, and Matthew Gaskin, 23, and critically injured Heather McMillian, 27, of Maben. Members of Gaskin’s family are seen speaking to reporters behind her. Above left, Crick enters the courtroom just before Judge Jim Kitchens hands down his 60-year sentence. Above right, bailiff William Cole escorts McMillian back to her seat after she leaves the witness stand during Monday’s sentencing hearing in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court. 
 By BRIAN HAWKINS
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Former state game warden Ryan Crick will spend 60 years in prison for his role in the fatal crash that killed two people and left a third with permanent scarring and nerve damage.
Crick, 27, a former Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks officer, pleaded guilty July 14 to three charges of aggravated DUI and one charge of leaving the scene of an accident with a death or injury in the Jan. 25, 2008, crash on Oktoc Road that claimed the lives of Matthew Gaskin, 23, and Jessica Burks, 27, and left Heather Kay McMillian, 27, of Maben in a Tupelo hospital for two months recovering from the injuries she suffered in the crash.
On Monday, McMillian and the families of Gaskin and Burks had their say before Judge Jim Kitchens, who sentenced Crick to the following:
• 20 years each for the aggravated DUI charges involving the deaths of Gaskin and Burks.
• 15 years for the aggravated DUI charge involving the injury and maiming of McMillian.
• 5 years for the charge of leaving the scene of an accident.
Kitchens ordered the sentences be served consecutively. Under state law, Crick will be required to serve 85 percent of his sentences for each of the aggravated DUI charges and at least 25 percent of the sentence for the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. This means he must serve a combined 48 years before he is eligible for parole.
Kitchens also ordered Crick to pay $10,000 apiece in restitution to the Gaskin and Burks families to cover their funeral expenses and $187,000 to McMillian to cover the medical costs assessed by her insurance company for the numerous medical treatments and physical and occupational therapy regimens she had during her recovery from the crash.
Kitchens handed down his sentence after a morning of emotional — what he described as “heart-rending” — testimony from Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Davis, who investigated the crash; Burks’ mother, Maria Ball; Burks’ husband, Palmer; Gaskin’s father, Steve, and McMillan, as well as from Crick’s sister, Audrey; Crick’s aunt, Gail Eaves, and Crick himself.
Kitchens recessed the court proceedings at least twice to allow himself additional time to read letters submitted by those supporting and against a maximum sentence for Crick.
“I told y’all I prayed about this case, and I have,” said Kitchens before handing down Crick’s sentence.
The investigation into the crash
Davis, who investigated the accident scene on Oktoc Road, testified that the accident occurred between “10 to 12 miles” from the Starkville city limits. Davis confirmed he was on his way to work the chilly morning of the crash when the call was dispatched by E-911 operators. Deputy Brandon Griggs, who was fairly new to the Sheriff’s Department, was the first to arrive and radioed him to “step it up” in getting to the crash scene, Davis testified.
Upon arrival, he saw the jeep he later learned Crick had been driving lying overturned on the side of the road, Davis said. Jessica Burks’ body was pinned under the jeep with only her legs visible, while Matthew Gaskin’s body lay “about 10 to 12 feet” from the jeep’s front end. Though Gaskin had no pulse, body was still warm, suggesting he had only been dead a few minutes, Davis said.
McMillian was laying nearby, and a volunteer firefighter was working to keep her alive until paramedics arrived, Davis said.
“To be honest, I did not think she was going to survive the ambulance ride to the hospital. I heard a gurgling noise coming from her and saw a lot of blood,” Davis said.
Davis initially did not know that Crick had been driving the jeep when it crashed or that he had even been present at the accident scene. He learned of Crick’s involvement upon conferring with numerous fellow deputies, a Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper and MDWFP officer who had heard the recording of the initial call to E-911 operators to report the accident.
The deputies, trooper and officer recognized Crick’s voice on the recording, but Crick refused to give his name to operators when asked, Davis said.
Subpoenaed cellular phone records later revealed that Crick had called E-911 operators from Burks’ cellular phone, but only after making at least six calls to his phone, others and to the jeep’s owner, Eric Gregory, who came from Winston County to pick Crick up less than a mile from the accident scene, Davis said. But Burks’ cellular phone has never been found, Davis said.
Gregory, who deputies learned owned the jeep, later gave statements saying that he picked up Crick and took him to Louisville, passing the crash scene on the way to where Crick had gone near the District 5 Volunteer Fire Department station less than a mile away. Gregory told deputies that Crick “wanted to go clean up and to take him home,” Davis said.
Seven hours after the accident was initially reported, Crick turned himself into deputies. Between the time of the accident and his arrest, Crick had spoken with numerous MHP troopers and MDWFP officers, all of whom told him that he was being sought in the crash and to turn himself in, Davis said.
After he was read his rights and refused to give any statement to deputies, Crick was taken to Oktibbeha County Hospital, where a blood sample was taken to determine his blood alcohol content. That blood sample would later be used in Crime Lab testing to match Crick’s DNA with that in a blood sample taken from the driver’s side airbag of the jeep, Davis said. The blood tests revealed that Crick’s BAC was .03 percent some seven hours after the crash, Davis said.
The impact on the families
Taking the witness stand, a tearful Maria Ball read a letter about the impact her daughter’s loss has had, saying that Crick’s actions “robbed us all ... of a wonderful, loving compassionate young woman who should be here on this earth and not buried in Memorial Park Cemetery.”
Jessica’s surviving family members — including her children, Cailey, 7, and Seth, 5 — continue to cope with her loss, Ball said.
“I’m not saying my Jessica was perfect, but she was perfectly loved,” Ball said.
“We know Ryan Crick was trained to help render emergency aid, but he chose not to. He cowardly left the scene. By his own selfishness, Jessica and Matt were killed and Heather was left to die. I never had the comfort of being able to say good-bye to my daughter. The last touch I had of Jessica was at the morgue.”
Palmer Burks would echo his mother-in-law’s statements a short time later.
Steve Gaskin said his son had a bright future ahead of him, noting that his son had already trained as a an emergency medical technician, was training to be a paramedic and had the ultimate goal of becoming a nurse anesthesist.
Gaskin was also adamant that had his son being the one driving the jeep instead of Crick, his son would have remained at the crash scene to help the others.
“He always thought of others first,” Mr. Gaskin said, noting that Crick “turned his back on three people in need and walked away.”
“Ryan wanted to protect himself. He is still running from his obligations,” Mr. Gaskin said.
The surviving victim
McMillian, speaking publicly for the first time since the accident, testified she was unconscious for more than two weeks after the crash. Upon awakening at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, her family purposely kept the details of the crash from her at her mother’s request, McMillian said.
She learned of the circumstances of the accident and Crick’s arrest when her mother showed her a newspaper story and the initial law enforcement reports of the accident, McMillian said.
“I said, ‘I know that boy left me out there to die,’ upon learning what happened,” McMillian said.
McMillian said she later learned that she had to be revived by paramedics and doctors nine times before she could be airlifted to Tupelo from OCH.
“I basically checked out, and they brought me back,” McMillian said. “Each time they tried to load me in the ambulance to get me into the helicopter, I coded each time.”
McMillian went through months of physical and occupational therapy to regain full use of her arms and hands because of the extensive injuries she suffered, including two broken clavicle bones in her shoulders, a broken wrist and a broken jaw that had to be wired shut, among other injuries. She still has nerve damage on one side of her face and other areas, McMillian said.
McMillian said she wanted “everyone to be clear” about the circumstances that led to the wreck, especially after earlier testimony revealed that she, Burks, Gaskin and Crick had been drinking.
“We were adults and we all made the decision to ride with Ryan. We all got in that jeep by our own decision,” McMillian said.
But McMillian — talking from the witness stand directly to Crick, who initially would not look her in the eye — said she and the Gaskin and Burks families could not understand why Crick chose to leave the crash site.
“What kind of person walks away? The paramedics didn’t expect me to make it. I’m here, Ryan, and I wonder what would have happened if you tried something to something — anything — to help us,” McMillian said.
“You may not know me from Sam, Ryan, but you would sleep on Matthew’s couch when you came to town. That’s the issue — we had know help from somebody two people called a friend.”
Crick takes the stand
After his sister, Audrey, and aunt, Gail Eaves, testified about his caring nature and his desire to help others, Crick himself took the stand, testifying that he had not contacted McMillian or any of the families to apologize on the advice of his attorney, John Coletti.
Crick also testified that he initially did not turn himself in to deputies after the crash on the advice of another attorney.
“For all the families, I am deeply sorry for what happened. If I could take that night back, I would. I would even trade places with any of them,” Crick said. “If I thought I could have helped any of them, I would have. I was scared to death.”
“I don’t know why I was afraid. It was a bad situation. I didn’t know what do but to call 911,” Crick said.
Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Frank Clark, Crick claimed he could not remember many of his actions after the crash, including using Jessica Burks’ cellular phone multiple times and calling Gregory before calling 911. Crick said he was still at the accident scene when he called 911, Crick said.
“I don’t know what was going through my head. I was not trying to maliciously harm anybody,” Crick said.
“You were using every means available to you to cover your tracks,” said Clark.
Ultimately, Crick’s decision to leave the accident scene without helping Burks, Gaskin or McMillian proved to be a factor in the sentence handed down, said Kitchens.
“The worst thing, Mr. Crick, that you did was leave. You weren’t there to comfort them or help them,” said Kitchens. “The autopsy showed Mrs. Burks likely died on impact. I’m not so sure about Mr. Gaskin.”
Aftermath
After the sentence, McMillian, Ball, Palmer Burks and Steve Gaskin all said they were still trying to move on from the tragedy. Ball said she believed justice had been done and that the sentence “ was the best thing that could have happened.”
Given the circumstances of the case, Clark said Crick’s sentence was justified.
“This man thought only of himself, and rather than doing what common decency would lead most of us to do, he immediately began setting up his getaway and coverup,” Clark said. “We’ll never know whether he could have done something to help save Jessica and Matt, but he should have tried.
“DUIs are crimes of arrogance where people say, ‘I know I am endangering others, but I just don’t care,’” Clark added.
Crick was immediately taken into custody after being sentenced.
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