Teen sentenced in deadly stop sign prank

Stonerock's charges stemmed from an Aug. 17 crash that resulted in the deaths of Mary Spangler, 85, and her sister, 81-year-old Jeanne Shea.

CIRCLEVILLE -- A Stoutsville teen was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for his role in the deaths of two sisters following an Aug. 17 crash that reportedly was caused by a covered stop sign.

Pickaway County Common Pleas Court Judge Randall Knece sentenced Seth Stonerock, 19, to two years for each of the two counts of reckless homicide he pleaded guilty to in February, Pickaway County Prosecutor Judy Wolford said.

Knece ordered the sentences to be served consecutively, Wolford said. Stonerock also was fined $5,000.

Stonerock pleaded guilty to the third-degree felonies Feb. 28, while charges of tampering with a traffic control device and two counts of involuntary manslaughter were dismissed.

Stonerock's charges stemmed from an Aug. 17 crash that resulted in the deaths of Mary Spangler, 85, and her sister, 81-year-old Jeanne Shea.

An investigation determined the crash occurred because a stop sign at the intersection of Huber-Hitler Road and Ohio 56 East had been covered with petroleum jelly and plastic wrap.

Sheriff Dwight Radcliff said in September that Stonerock and another teen had wrapped a girl's car in plastic wrap Aug. 17 before heading to a stop sign near their homes and concealing all but a small part of the "P" on the sign. Prosecutors later said the pair bragged about the pranks on the social networking website Facebook.

The other teen also initially was charged, but a Circleville Municipal Court judge dismissed those charges, indicating there was not enough credible evidence the man had aided and abetted in obscuring the stop sign.

Pickaway County Sheriff's dispatcher Cpl. Kimberly Chapman lost her job after the incident when an investigation determined she had received two calls about the sign being covered but did not report it to the Ohio Department of Transportation.