Man pleads guilty in accident that killed basketball player

Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997 | 11:12 a.m.

The mother of a local high school basketball star killed in an auto accident that also took her husband expressed anger today over the district attorney reaching a plea bargain with the underaged drunken driver that hit their car.

Michael Allen Thompson, who was 20 when the car he was driving killed Rodrick McClure and his stepfather, James Addison, a day after Christmas last year, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of felony drunken driving. He faces two to 20 years in prison.

"I am insulted and very upset," said Hester Addison, wife of James and mother of Rodrick, who were killed en route to McCarran International Airport for McClure to catch a flight back to college after spending Christmas at home.

"Which one of them was important enough to get the (criminal) count? Both lives were important to me. I don't understand the politics. I just want justice for my husband and son."

It is not uncommon for multiple DUI charges from a single accident to be combined into a single charge. This actually helps survivors because a guilty plea in a criminal case translates into automatic liability in a civil case. Thompson reportedly had minimal insurance coverage.

Hester Addison reckons that because Thompson was caught at the accident scene at Tropicana Avenue and Paradise Road and his blood alcohol level was 0.05 percent above the legal 0.10 limit, the district attorney had the culprit dead-to-rights and shouldn't have plea bargained.

"He (Thompson) should have gotten the maximum of 40 years," Addison said. "The most he can get now is 20, and you know he is not going to serve 20 years. He'll serve about eight -- eight years for taking two lives."

Attempts to reach Gary Booker, head of the DA's DUI team, were unsuccessful early today.

However, such plea bargains are common in order to assure that a guilty person will indeed serve time. It also avoids the added expense of a trial, in which jurors could find a suspect not guilty or wind up hung, causing a mistrial.

Two counts of reckless driving and a second felony DUI count were dropped in exchange for Thompson's single guilty plea.

Thompson's 1993 sports car was traveling eastbound at a high rate of speed on Tropicana at 4:30 a.m. when it ran a red light and struck the southbound 1990 Cadillac driven by Addison, then 56, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Hester Addison, a chauffeur at the airport who has worked only about two weeks since the accident, will get an opportunity to express her feelings before District Judge Michael Douglas at sentencing set for Jan. 7. The trial had been set to begin Monday.

McClure, the first point guard in the history of Cimarron-Memorial High School, helped lead the then-3-year-old school to the 1994 state crown. He was a student at Eastern Washington University, where he played point guard, when he was killed last year at age 21. Last season, the junior starter averaged 7.7 points, 5.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game.