Punishment phase begins for man in deadly drunk driving crash

Loubna Elharazin’s son was 2 when a man with multiple drunk driving convictions plowed into the rear of the family’s Honda Accord. The boy was 8 when he died in this year from the injuries he suffered in the 2009 crash.

This week, attorneys in the punishment phase of his trial will argue how long a prison term Stewart Richardson must serve for killing Abdallah Khader. Richardson pleaded guilty in June to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, intoxicated assault and DWI felony repetition in the case.

He faces a life sentence, enhanced because of a previous DWI conviction in Iowa. Richardson had at least seven previous DWI convictions when his F-150 pickup rammed the rear of the Khader family car while it was stopped at a red light at Oak Village Boulevard and South Cooper Street on Feb. 20, 2009, in Arlington.

Abdallah came home from Cook Children’s Medical Center in April 2009 in what doctors called an irreversible vegetative state. He died in January of this year.

"Today, I buried my son," said Elharazin at Moore Funeral Home in Arlington moments after her son was buried. "Today he is free. I feel at peace. Today he is with God.

"Stewart Richardson is not a nightmare anymore. Today is the first day that I can forgive him."

Richardson, 51, of Davenport, Iowa, has been in the Tarrant County Jail since he was arrested on the night of the wreck. He has been awaiting trial longer than any other Tarrant County jail inmate.

The trial was delayed as prosecutors and his attorneys argued in courts about whether Richardson's prior convictions could be used to stiffen the penalty in this case. The 2nd Court of Appeals ruled that the prior convictions could be used.

On Monday, William “Bill” Ray and Jerry Wood, Stewart’s defense attorneys, called character witnesses who testified for about an hour. Those witnesses said that Richardson was a good family friend who worked hard, never missed a birthday and loved people.

But cross-examination by Richard Alpert and Joshua Ross, Tarrant County prosecutors, showed Richarson told his friends and relatives very little about his criminal history or his previous convictions.

Randy Krana, who testified that Richardson sometimes helped him with construction jobs or rehabilitating houses for his children, said Richardson didn’t tell him he had amassed a total of 22 convictions for various crimes.

Krana also admitted that he had seen some prison time himself.

“There ain’t too many prisons that I haven’t been in,” Krana said.

Richardson has elected to have state District Judge George Gallagher set his sentence. Testimony is scheduled to continue in Gallagher’s court at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

This story includes information from the Star-Telegram archives

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Punishment phase begins for man in deadly drunk driving crash."