Dale family awarded $3.5 million in wrongful death suit

A Brundidge man is ordered to pay $3.5 million to the family of the late Charles Edward Knight.

Dale County Circuit Judge Bill Filmore ordered Ronald Charles Pugh to pay $3,500,000 in connection with the July 29, 2009 head on car crash that caused Knight’s death.

According to the suit, filed on behalf of Janice Knight by Montgomery attorney Joe N. Lampley, Knight’s death was caused when Pugh's 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV barreled northbound in the southbound lanes on U.S. Highway 231 at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Dale County Court in June 2012, Pugh was involved in a high-speed car chase from vehicles driven by Ozark City Police Officer Jimmy Culbreth and Dothan Police Officer Taiwan Truitt.

According to published reports at the time of the accident, Pugh was being pursued by the law officers when he crossed the median heading north in the southbound lanes and slammed head-on into a 2003 Toyota Corolla driven by Knight, 57, of Ozark, at the intersection of U.S. 231 and Dale County Road 2.

Knight was killed in the crash. Pugh was taken to Flowers Hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries, including two broken legs.

According to published reports, Pugh threw five pounds of marijuana from his vehicle during the chase.

After a Dale County jury convicted Pugh of trafficking marijuana and for murder in the death of the retired military veteran in 2010, Pugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole by Dale County Circuit Judge P.B. McLauchlin.

During the trial, Dale County District Attorney Supernumerary David Emery asked McLauchlin to sentence Pugh to life without parole based on several past convictions for which Pugh was already serving a prison sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

Emery said the past offenses included attempted murder in Alabama and several armed robbery and assault charges in Florida.

Pugh’s attorney, Bill Kominos, argued during the 2010 trial that despite Pugh’s murder conviction, he did not mean to kill Knight. “The evidence clearly shows that it was an accident, that there was no intent to kill or hurt somebody that he didn’t even know,” Kominos said at that time.

In his ruling, filed Nov. 24, Filmore noted for the record that Pugh did not appear in court despite being served with a summons April 3 and called Pugh’s action’s “wanton, lawless and reckless.”