Judge decides Oconean has “no defenses to the liability”

A circuit judge has ruled an Oconee man in default and ordered damages paid to the statutory heirs of a young woman who was one of two people who died after a moped-pickup truck accident four and a half years ago.  The ruling, by Judge John Hayes, awards $250 thousand to the heirs of ChalesC Skelton.  A passenger on a moped, Skelton died in the 2012 accident on SC 24.  She was 17 years old. Also killed in the accident was the moped operator, Adam Ostrander.  The accident involved a pickup truck driven by Johnny Alvin Roach. The judge’s ruling stated, “The Court finds that defendant Johnny Roach is in default in this matter having not responded timely to the Summons and Complaint, and having not filed any motion to be relieved from default prior to the date of this hearing.”  A hearing in the case was held in February at the Oconee Courthouse where Annette Skelton testified that her adopted daughter worked in an Oconee restaurant and wanted to go to cooking school to become a chef.  In that same year, 2012, two others in the Skelton family died.  In awarding damages, Hayes wrote:  “While these peripheral family deaths are not related to the accident in this case, and the defendant has no direct or indirect responsibility for those deaths, the Court does take notice that the pre-existing condition and mental state of Mrs. Skelton prior to the death of her daughter was compromised and certainly aggravated and accentuated as a result of the death of the decedent in this matter.