ALLEGED DRAG RACER FACES MURDER CHARGE

JACKSON -- A fatal traffic accident involving two co-workers on Highway 177 last month was murder, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor said.

Charges were increased from manslaughter to second-degree murder against an Illinois man witnesses said was drag racing down the two-lane highway on Feb. 9.

This is only the fourth such case in Missouri involving a murder charge in a fatal DWI-related accident, prosecutor Morley Swingle said.

John A. Long, 41, of Decatur, Ill., had been driving on the wrong side of the road while John M. Endrizzi, 44, drove alongside Long shortly after 5 p.m. Reports from the state Highway Patrol note witnesses saying that the drivers were traveling at a high rate of speed when it seemed that the two cars collided, causing Endrizzi's vehicle to turn over several times. Endrizzi died at the scene.

Long was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter and driving without a valid license.

Once Swingle received documentation of three prior Illinois DWI convictions against Long, he changed the charge to second-degree murder.

An alteration in Missouri law last year allows second-degree murder to be charged against a person with two or more previous DWI convictions involved in a fatal accident, Swingle said.

In the three state court cases where the charge has been used, all of which occurred last year, the defendants were convicted, Swingle said. Two of the three were given sentences of more than 20 years in prison.

Sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder range from 10 to 30 years in prison, or life imprisonment.

The class C felony of involuntary manslaughter is punishable by one to seven years in prison and a possible fine of up to $5,000.

Long's prior DWI convictions were in Macon County in 1991, 1992, and 1995, but charges of manslaughter and the class A misdemeanor of driving without a license will still be offered to a judge or jury if either feels the prosecution hasn't proven murder, Swingle said.

The statutory definition of second-degree murder is a person being killed by another person committing a felony crime, he said.

"The example given in law school has a robber firing a shot as he's coming out of a store he has just held up," Swingle said. "If someone dies, that's second-degree murder."

Because Long was driving while intoxicated at the time of the accident, he was committing a class D felony, the prosecutor said.

Long is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.