HomeMy WebLinkAboutkirchgesner greg_0008-,The Ithaca Journal Friday, April 24, 1998
Neighbors describe suspe
By KEVIN HARLIN
Yotlnfid Siaff
CLAY — The 22 -year-old man
charged in the death of a prominent
-member of the Enfield community is
"a quiet guy" and a "great father," a
neighbor said.
Police have released few details
,pbout Daniel L. Ellithorpe, charged
with leaving the scene of an accident
in the Feb. 4
death of bicyclist
Gregory
Kirchgessner, 50,
on Route 79.
Department
of Motor Vehicle
records show that
he has a driving
history checkered
with unpaid
speeding tickets
and license sus-
pensions, but no convictions for dri-
ving while intoxicated or other offens-
es.
Since May 11, 1994, he has been
convicted nine times of traffic offenses
such as speeding, disobeying a traffic
control device, operating without a
license and operating an unregistered
motor vehicle — for a total of $760 in
tines.
His license has been suspended or
revoked six times since Jan. 13, 1995,
before it was surrendered for the last
time on Jan. 12 this year. At the time
Reaction
(Continued from Page IA)
"I felt sorry for the poor jerk,"
Mamie said about her first, gut reac-
tion. "But the forth of the matter is, I
think i still feel sorry for him," she
.said. "I'm furious with him. But some-
how, in my mind, it's his parents'
fault."
While easing the pain somewhat,
Mamie sees Ellithorpe's arrest as just
.. another part of what will be a series of
!, seemingly impossible changes in a life
without Gregory. It's little things
`about her husband's personality that
come back to her, and appear to bring
the most pain.
"You're going to think this is
strange. But you know when I feel
closest to him is when I'm mopping
the Floor," she said. "Because I think
'die'd be so proud of me because I
"never mopped the floor before."
"The weekend before he died,I
of the accident, he did not have valid
license — one reason Debbie
Schwerin, Ellithorpe's landlady and
neighbor, said he told her he was sell-
ing the car.
"He said there was no point in him
even having a car," Schwerin said.
Although he attended Liverpool
High School, a spokeswoman from the
school's registrar's office said he with-
drew in January 1992, without gradu-
ating.
Schwerin said Ellithorpe moved
into the two-bedroom townhouse in
September 1997 with his girlfriend
and their daughter, now 2.
His girlfriend moved out two or
three months later, but Schwerin said
Ellithorpe still cared for their daugh-
ter three or four times a week while
her mother attended classes at
Onondaga Community College.
"I know that he is a young kid and
everything, but he was a great father,"
said Schwerin, who, along with her 1I-
yearold son, would often help watch
the child.
She said she was surprised when
police came to arrest him Wednesday
morning.
And she was surprised again when
they removed some marijuana from
the apartment along with some drug
paraphernalia, when they returned
later that night armed with a search
warrant. She said they also took some
of his papers.
SUSPECT'S ADDRESS: Daniel L.
3754C Helios Court, on a quiet cub
urb of Clay, was searched by the Tor
cers Wednesday evening after Ellitho
Although police gave her an item-
i2ed list of everything they took, she
declined to specify how much drugs or
what other items were taken.
Schwerin said Ellithorpe did roof-
ing or chimney work, but had been on
disability in recent weeks with an arm
injury suffered in a fall.
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