Man gets 5 to 7½ years prison in 2019 OVI crash that killed Wright State student

A Centerville man was sentenced Friday to five to seven and a half years in prison for causing a wrong-way OVI crash on Interstate 675 that killed a 23-year-old Wright State student more than two years ago in Beavercreek.

Ronald Kevin Myer, 55, pleaded guilty Friday before a visiting judge in Greene County Common Pleas Court to aggravated vehicular homicide, a felony, and operating a vehicle under the influence, a misdemeanor, in the death of Paige Elizabeth Patrick of Vandalia.

Myer, who did not speak during the sentencing, wept as Patrick’s mother, Melinda, talked about her daughter and how much she is missed by her family.

In addition to the prison time, his driver’s license was suspended for 25 years.

Immediately after sentencing, Myer was handcuffed outside the courtroom and escorted by two sheriff’s deputies to the Greene County Jail.

Credit: Greene County Jail

Credit: Greene County Jail

Myer was traveling the wrong way around 8:50 p.m. June 21, 2019, on the Ohio 844 ramp when he entered I-675 North. His 2004 Jaguar X-Type collided head-on with a 2002 Acura RSX driven by Patrick, according to a Beavercreek Police Department crash report.

Both drivers were taken to Soin Medical Center - Kettering Health, where Patrick was pronounced dead.

Myer’s blood-alcohol level tested at 0.23 following the crash, according to the report, which is nearly three times Ohio’s 0.08 legal driving limit.

Patrick was in her third year studying art history and religion at Wright State. She graduated in 2013 from Vandalia-Butler High School, where she was a member of the choir and the debate team, according to her obituary.

Patrick also worked at T-Mobile and was an ordained minister; she enjoyed dancing, hiking, Pokémon GO, yoga, kayaking, biking, drawing and writing, according to her obituary.

“Paige was such a beautiful person inside and out,” her mother said Friday in court. “She was kind and compassionate, intelligent and competent, helpful, full of life, funny, a bright star in all of our lives.”

Melinda Patrick said that the family thinks about Paige Patrick constantly and oftentimes feels like they lose her every time they wake up in the morning and sometimes multiple times a day. She said her daughter will never get to live out her dreams like graduating college, finding a career, getting married and having children.

Myer, a civilian employee at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, was indicted Sept. 20, 2019, for aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has remained free on $50,000 bond, court records show.

An Ohio Department of Transportation camera caught his vehicle traveling south in the northbound lanes before the deadly crash, officials said.

Myer had five previous traffic citations from October 2008 to July 2016. The traffic cases include two incidents of speeding, one failure to yield the right of way, one failure to maintain assured clear distance and one failure to give full time and attention to operating the vehicle, according to Kettering Municipal Court records.

In addition, Fairborn Municipal Court records show Myer was cited for speeding by the Ohio State Highway Patrol in 2005, going 83 mph in a 65 mph zone.

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