KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Williamson County man on probation for a gruesome hit-and-run crash that killed a woman, her fetus and a Good Samaritan in 2012 has been accused of violating probation.
Curtis Scott Harper, 31, turned himself in late Tuesday in Knox County.
He's accused of violating probation because he got into a physical fight with his fiancee in February in Williamson County, court records show.
Harper is set to appear May 7 before Knox County Criminal Court Judge Scott Green.
Defense attorney Jeff Whitt has filed a request for Green to set bond so Harper can get out of jail pending the violation warrant so he can resume work at a Home Depot in Middle Tennessee.
Harper's history with the Knox County judicial system is almost a decade long.
He hit and killed Chasity Thornell and Nelzon Soto the night of May 30, 2012, as they stood on Washington Pike near Atoka Lane. He'd been at The Hill pub in Fort Sanders.
Sarah Tinder, a friend of Thornell's, had run out of gas on Washington Pike and was parked at an angle in her lane, records show. Thornell was trying to help. Soto, who lived nearby, was trying to help Thornell as well.
Thornell and Soto were standing in the road on the driver's side.
Driving a Ford Explorer on Washington Pike, Harper struck and killed the two people. The crash was so violent Thornell's fetus was ejected from her body, evidence showed.
Harper continued on to the nearby apartment complex where he lived. Knoxville police eventually tracked down his Explorer, and Harper was charged.
He was convicted of three counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication, among other charges.
But the defense appealed, arguing Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz had improperly let in crime scene and autopsy photos that were too gory. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals agreed in 2015, sending the case back for a retrial.
Harper, who had served several years in state custody by then, subsequently took a plea deal that gave him an effective 13-year sentence, with credit for three years' served.
It remains in effect today. He's on probation.
Whitt argues that aside from the alleged misdemeanor domestic assault involving his fiancee, Harper has done everything he's supposed to do while on probation.
After the fight, Harper and his fiancee talked, and Harper agreed to go into an "intensive outpatient program" at a Franklin, Tenn., hospital, according to Whitt.
He finished the program April 19, according to Whitt.
Harper isn't a flight risk, the attorney argues, and poses no danger to the community.
