Man Gets Maximum 20 Yr. Sentence For Causing His Second Fatal Drunk Driving Crash

Rocky McMurray caused deadly drunk driving crashes in 2005 and 2017.

Rocky McMurray. Photo by Dearborn County Sheriff's Department.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) - The maximum possible sentence of 20 years has been ordered for a man who caused a deadly drunk driving crash in Dearborn County.

Rocky Lee McMurray, 49, was drunk when he crashed into and killed Steven Ahaus on Sparta Pike near Moores Hill on January 24, 2017. Ahaus, a married father of five, lived in Moores Hill.

It was the second time McMurray was responsible for a fatal drunk driving crash. He killed another person during a crash in Kentucky in 2005. The 2017 incident was the sixth time he was caught driving drunk.

On September 27, Dearborn Superior Court II Judge Sally McLaughlin threw the book at McMurray, sentencing him to the maximum 20 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty in June to Causing Death When Operating Motor Vehicle with .15 or More (level 4 felony) and a habitual substance offender enhancement.

After he gets out, McMurray’s license will be suspended for 20 more years.

“Mr. McMurray represents the worst type of OVWI offender,” Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens said in a statement. “Anytime you have an individual who has shown enough disregard for the extreme risk they put the community at by driving drunk six times is concerning, but when you know that an individual has already killed one person, and continues to get behind the wheel after he’s been drinking, that’s a level of indifference that is hard to imagine.”

Steven Ahaus was killed in a crash McMurray caused while driving drunk. File photo.

Deddens thanked McLaughlin for handing down the max sentence. She also praised the family of Steven Ahaus, particularly Steve’s widow Shawnee Grace, for their strength throughout this case and at an August 30 sentencing hearing.

The prosecutor argues that state lawmakers need to allow stricter sentencing options for repeat DUI offenders like McMurray, who she fears could potentially re-offend when he is freed from prison.

“Under the current Indiana Criminal Code, offenses like the one caused by McMurray only start at the same level as some minor financial crimes. The fact that McMurray only faced a potential of twelve years for his underlying charge is frightening for someone who has taken a human life. A longer sentence wouldn’t bring Steven Ahaus back, but it would at least protect the people of Dearborn County from a man who has spent twenty years putting citizens of the county at risk, and who has killed two other people,” she said.

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