California man going back to prison after 2nd high-speed chase killed a retired Seabee
It didn’t work out well for a California man who provided his own defense in Harrison County Court against charges that he struck and killed a driver and injured another while fleeing from Gulfport police.
After a two-week trial, a jury deliberated 2 1/2 hours before returning guilty verdicts against Jeremy Fogleman, 40, District Attorney Joel Smith announced in a press release Friday.
Circuit Court Judge Larry Bourgeois sentenced Fogleman to 50 years in Mississippi prison as a habitual offender, which means he will serve the entire sentence without any early release or parole.
A year earlier, while fleeing Biloxi police, he crashed into a couple’s car, but they were not injured. Before that case went to trial, he fled police in Gulfport.
Fogleman argued at the trial that he was not driving the car, that the police video had been manufactured, that his car’s brake system was faulty, and that the doctor’s malpractice had caused the victim’s death.
“During trial the State of Mississippi called a DNA expert who testified that the defendant’s blood was on the driver’s door panel, the driver’s seat, the driver’s airbag, and on the driver’s side of the passenger airbag,” said Assistant District Attorney Matthew Burrell, who prosecuted the case with ADA Jason Josef.
Gulfport chase begins
The incident began shortly before midnight on July 8, 2015, as the police attempted a traffic stop on his orange Chevrolet Camaro. Once the officer turned on his blue lights at the corner of 28th Street and Pass Road, Fogleman fled.
Driving at speeds over 100 mph, Fogleman ran the red light at Pass Road and 8th Avenue and slammed into a vehicle driven by 65-year-old retired Seabee Edward Fredrickson, heading north on 8th Avenue. Police say those vehicles struck another vehicle sitting in the westbound lane of Pass Road.
Fredrickson was taken to Memorial Hospital and then airlifted to Mobile, where he died from his injuries nine days later. The second driver struck had multiple injuries to her lower extremities, police said.
The officer saw, and a dash camera recorded, Fogleman climb out of the driver’s side after the crash and a passenger climb out of the vehicle.
The “black box” from his car showed Fogleman was traveling 100 mph two and a half seconds before the impact, and 65 mph just .5 seconds before impact.
Habitual offender
Fogleman was sentenced to the maximum of five years in 2016 for a crash on Aug. 27, 2014, while fleeing Biloxi police.
Police said his black and orange Dodge Charger hit speeds of more than 80 mph on Division Street and U.S. 90 before he hit a car on U.S. 90 at Beauvoir Road in west Biloxi. Their car was totaled, but the other driver and his wife were not seriously injured.
Fogleman also had been arrested before for felony convictions for driving under the influence and for fleeing from police.
“Pre-trial investigations also showed the defendant had three additional fleeing convictions from Florida,” Burrell said.
Judge Bourgeois told Fogleman his actions were “deplorable” and that he had robbed the victim of his golden years.
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
