Cherokee Superior Court Judge Harris Recuses Himself in Ryan Quinton Case

Cherokee County Chief Superior Court Judge Jackson Harris last week recused himself from the pending trail of a Jasper man facing charges in the fatal accident that killed his new wife on the night of their wedding.

Harris filed the motion on Aug. 13 to recuse himself in the case against Ryan Patrick Quinton, 28, who faces vehicular homicide and other charges in the Dec. 29 crash that fatally wounded wife Kali Dobson Quinton.

The case has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Ellen McElyea, court documents show. It’s not clear if a trial date has been set.

Harris, who is presiding over a murder trial this week, ”has no comment” on the order, administrative assistant Rena Morris said.

Quinton, 28, was indicted in June by a Cherokee County grand jury on three counts of homicide by vehicle in the first degree charges.

Quinton, who lives in Jasper, was originally charged by the Georgia State Patrol with laying drags, DUI, weaving over roadway, reckless driving and vehicular homicide in the single-vehicle crash.

“We charged him with vehicular homicide in three alternative ways — DUI per se, DUI less safe and reckless driving,” Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney Shannon Wallace previously told Patch. “If he is convicted of all three, he can only be sentenced on one count.”

According to the indictment, Quinton allegedly “intentionally and unnecessarily caused the vehicle he was driving to move in a zig-zag course,” forcing the vehicle to venture into the wrong lane.

The vehicle then traveled down an embankment, overturned and Kail Quinton was ejected from the vehicle.

Quinton told authorities he tried to avoid hitting a dog in the roadway when he lost control of the vehicle. The car, a 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, traveled off the road, overturned and ejected Quinton’s wife before it came to rest with the woman trapped under the vehicle.

She died at the scene of the accident.

In May, Quinton was arrested in Pickens County on driving under the influence, failure to stop at a stop sign and failure to drive within a single lane charges.

That arrested prompted the Cherokee Sheriff’s Office to revoke his bond and arrest Quinton on a bench warrant.