Amissville man sentenced for causing deadly Clevengers Corner crash

Judge Dale A. Durrer took a stance against drunk driving Tuesday when he handed down a unique sentence to an Amissville man for his involvement in a fatal October car crash at Clevengers Corner. 

The Culpeper County Circuit Court judge told Steven A. Rose, 46, that when he is released from his 17 years in prison, he wants him to report for five years to the Culpeper County Jail each Oct. 4 for one day of jail time “to honor the life” of Diane Mederos who died in the crash on that date.

Rose had pleaded guilty to aggravated involuntary manslaughter in May for his involvement in a multi-car wreck at Clevengers Corner. 

Rose was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with three of those years suspended, and must pay a $2,500 fine and complete 150 hours of community service. When Rose is released, he also will serve five years of supervised probation.

“[This sentence] is what I wrestled with this weekend,” Durrer said. “If the court can give a sentence that deters just one person from engaging in the reckless conduct that Mr. Rose did, that’s worth it.”

On Oct. 4, 2023, Rose was traveling westbound on Route 211 when his Dodge Durango collided with Mederos’ BMW that was stopped at the traffic light at Clevengers Corner, causing a chain reaction involving other vehicles ahead. Mederos, 61, who was traveling home from work, was the only casualty. 

Before Rose was sentenced, family members of Mederos gave victim impact statements, detailing how the loss has affected them. 

Desiree Sedgwick Duvall, Mederos’ twin, said her sister was a giving, positive person, and she doesn’t “want her to be forgotten.” 

“She just radiated warmth and goodwill,” Sedgwick Duvall, in tears, said in her testimony. “She was like a flame and I was a moth . . . there’s nothing that comes close to my sister.”

Rose’s testimony

During his testimony, Rose said on the day of the crash, he came home from working a nearly 24-hour shift as a temporary traffic controller, and drank tequila shots starting around 10 a.m. As he was questioned by Commonwealth’s Attorney Travis Owens, the amount he drank that morning changed, going from a total of four shots of tequila to four or five double shots. 

He said after his last double shot around noon, a friend came over and asked him to drive her to Warrenton. He said at the time he did not know why she needed a ride, but later learned she was going to buy heroin. 

Owens said witnesses reported that Rose was driving “erratically” toward Amissville around 6 p.m. Rose admitted to driving 85 mph on the shoulder of the highway and said that as he was coming over a hill before the traffic light, he wanted to get close enough to wave at a friend he saw driving ahead. 

The intersection has been the site of dozens of crashes in the past few years. In weeks following the crash, residents called for state and county officials to modify the intersection to make it safer.  

Rose said as he approached the intersection, his car “shut off” and he was unable to brake. 

The prosecution questioned this claim, presenting information from the car’s black box which showed Rose was “full throttle” traveling 92 mph at the time of impact, and activated the brake less than 0.3 seconds before hitting Mederos. Rose said he was critically injured, and needed to be revived three times. He said he spent two weeks in the hospital. Rose said he has struggled with his mental health throughout his life. 

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A blood test performed after the crash also revealed that Rose had fentanyl and trace amounts of Xanax in his system. Rose said he smoked marijuana the day before the crash, and said it must have been “laced” with fentanyl. “I never had tried that stuff in my entire life,” he said. The blood test also showed Rose’s blood alcohol content was 0.08, the legal limit, “a few hours after” the crash, Owens said. 

“He knew he was driving while impaired. . .[it was] a complete disregard for human life he displayed that day,” Owens said. “​​The victim in this case was simply doing what she had done hundreds, thousands of times.” 

Owens brought up Rose’s prior criminal history, which he said should be taken into account in sentencing In total, Rose has 14 misdemeanors and seven felonies, according to the judge. 

Rose’s attorney, Amy Harper, said many friends and family present in the courtroom would testify that Rose “has a big heart” and would not “intentionally go out and harm someone.” 

“He has shown a significant amount of remorse,” Harper said. “There’s no way we can replace her, and no sentence you give him will replace her.”

Rose turned to Mederos’ family and apologized before the judge read out his sentence. 

“I’m not asking y’all to forgive me, but please know it was an accident,” Rose said. 

‘Sorry isn’t good enough’

After the sentencing was over, Mederos’ daughter, Michelle Mederos, said her mother was the “light of her life.” She said the sentence is “appropriate,” but said she feels “rage” toward Rose. “Sorry isn’t good enough,” she said. 

“I didn’t really need any other friends because my mom was my best friend,” Michelle Mederos said in court. “She always found a way, when there was no way, to make us happy.”

Mederos’ husband, Pedro, and their two sons, Mark and Michael, were not able to come to the sentencing because it was “too emotionally tolling for them to come,” Michelle Mederos said. Sedgewick said the loss of her sister has also had a large impact financially on her brother-in-law, who retired early. 

Mederos said the family has been coping as well as they can, supporting each other through their grief. She said they avoid talking about the crash. 

“It’s been a long, long wait, the anticipation building to see if justice would be served for my mom, and I’m happy as I can be with the outcome,” Michelle Mederos said. “It is one door closing, but we’ve got a whole life ahead of us . . . without her.”