Charles man guilty on two homicide counts

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007

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‘‘At least he will be in jail a long time,” said Sandra Lubbes, the mother of Reigle’s victim Natala Lowery, 25, of Chesapeake Beach. ‘‘I’d like him to spend every moment of his life in jail. I will be at all his parole hearings to make sure he doesn’t get out one second early.”

‘‘I hope it goes as planned and he gets 20 years,” said Sheila Ann Gant, of Suitland, the sister of victim Theresa Gant, 51, of White Sands. ‘‘Especially after they dropped the other charges. ... The Lord will work it out. You can’t say it’s justice, you can’t give a life back.”

Reigle killed the two women while on PCP on the morning of April 17, 2006, according to a statement of facts accepted by Reigle as read into the court record by Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Rappaport.

Rappaport said that Reigle first came to police attention that morning when he hit a Dodge Neon twice on Route 4 just south of Route 231. The owner of the Neon called police and gave them Reigle’s green Ford Thunderbird’s tag number.

Seconds later, Reigle sideswiped a Ford Aerostar van headed southbound on Route 4 . The van driver also called police and gave Reigle’s tag number.

As police were headed for the earlier accidents, disaster struck. Reigle’s car, which had been straddling the white lane marker for the two southbound lanes, according to Rappaport, struck the back of another Aerostar van, used as an ambulance, with Lowery driving and Gant as a passenger. Gant had been picked up from a doctor’s appointment for her chronic diabetes, Sheila Ann Gant said, and was on her way home.

Reigle’s car knocked the ambulance into the northbound lanes of Route 4, where it was hit by two other cars, had its gas tank rupture and burst into flames. Both Gant and Lowery died at the scene as a result of fire and smoke inhalation in Lowery’s case, and from injuries suffered in the impact in Gant’s case, according to Rappaport said.

Meanwhile, Reigle had stopped and backed his car off of Route 4. He was approached by Calvert County Sheriff’s Office’s Cpl. Anthony Moschetto, who noticed he was intoxicated. Reigle told Moschetto that he had smoked PCP and showed Moschetto flakes of dried parsley soaked in the drug in his mouth where he had tried to get rid of it, Rappaport said. A toxicology report later confirmed that Reigle had PCP in his blood.

Rappaport said the state’s attorney’s office had dropped two counts of hit and run and a count of marijuana possession against Reigle in exchange for the guilty plea to the two negligent homicide charges. Rappaport said his office will seek the maximum 10 year sentence for each count, to run consecutively, meaning Reigle will serve 20 years in prison if a judge agrees to the recommendation.

Sheila Ann Gant and brother Rufus Gant, both of Suitland, said they remember their sister as a lively, happy person.

‘‘This Thanksgiving was her birthday,” said Sheila Ann Gant. ‘‘She was so jolly, so full of life. We were anticipating her visit, and we did not know that day that she would not be coming back.”

Rufus Gant said he bitterly regrets not preserving her last telephone message.

‘‘She would always call at work to see how I was doing, see when we planned on coming over to visit her. I miss all that,” he said. ‘‘I had her voice saved on my tape at work, but after a time it got erased. It’s already almost a year and we’re still not close to over it.”

‘‘I just miss her so much,” Sheila Ann Gant said, breaking into tears outside the state’s attorney office after the hearing. ‘‘The last thing she said to me was she would see me soon, and ‘I love you.’ ”

Lubbes has given several interviews to The Calvert Recorder in the past and has described her daughter, Lowery, as a bright, talented young woman.

Reigle is scheduled to be sentenced March 30.

E-mail Joel Davis at jdavis@somdnews.com.