Randy Clelland sentenced on convictions linked to crash killing Anthony and Tamara Vardys
Topekan Randy D. Clelland, charged in the accidental 2021 Topeka deaths of two motorcyclists, recently accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to one year on probation, Shawnee County District Court records show.
Clelland, 66, pleaded guilty June 12 to six misdemeanors and a traffic infraction as part of an agreement in which two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment were dismissed.
The charges were linked to a March 2021 traffic crash that killed Topekans Anthony Vardys, 46, and his wife, Tamara Vardys, 47.
Why did Clelland end up on probation and his co-defendant in prison?
Clelland's co-defendant, Rigo Phinney, 37, has been an inmate since September 2023 at Norton Correctional Facility, where he could be released at the earliest in October 2025, Kansas Department of Corrections records show.
A Shawnee County District Court jury in February 2021 found Phinney guilty of 14 crimes, including two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, linked to the crash. He was acquitted of two other crimes, both misdemeanors.
Katie Garceran, spokeswoman for the office of District Attorney Mike Kagay, addressed why the case against Clelland was resolved in a different manner than the case against Phinney.
"Rigo Phinney was tried and convicted by our office, and sent to prison," she said. "The specific facts and circumstances of this case were different, and warranted this outcome. Prosecutors have an independent duty to continually evaluate the merits of a case and proceed accordingly."
What happened in the crash?
The double fatality crash occurred just after 10 p.m. on March 20, 2021, at the intersection of N.E. US-24 highway and Meriden Road, Topeka police said.
Clelland and Phinney were using a pickup truck and a chain to tow another pickup, which was disabled, when the chain came loose as the pickup in front tried to turn north from US-24 onto Meriden Road, they said.
At the time, a group of motorcycles was westbound on US-24, with Anthony Vardys the driver and Tamara Vardys the passenger on one of them, Kagay said.
The motorcyclists took evasive maneuvers to avoid the trucks, but the truck that was being towed struck the motorcycle on which the couple was riding, he said.
Clelland pleaded guilty June 12 to two misdemeanors involving the unsafe towing of vehicles and one misdemeanor count each of reckless driving, driving while suspended (first conviction), not carrying liability insurance and operating a vehicle without registration or with an expired tag, court records show.
He also pleaded guilty to failure to yield to an approaching vehicle when turning left, which is a traffic infraction, those records say.
The sentence of one year on supervised probation that Clelland received June 12 bans him from having contact with criminals or possessing firearms or dangerous weapons, court records say.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Probation imposed regarding Topeka crash that killed motorcyclists
