Local News

Far West guilty on five of six felony charges
BY JAMES GILBERT, Sun Staff Writer
Published on: October 14, 2005

CONTINUING COVERAGE

After only two days of deliberations, a jury found Far West Water and Sewer Company guilty on five of the six felony charges filed against it.

The jury, which returned its verdict late Friday afternoon, convicted the water and sewer company of negligent homicide, aggravated assault, violating a safety standard causing the death of an employee and two counts of endangerment in the deaths of James Gamble, 26, and Gary Lanser, 62, who were overcome by toxic sewage gases while working on an underground sewer tank on Oct. 24, 2001, in Mesa Del Sol.

Gamble’s mother, Carol Borieo, commenting immediately after the verdict came down, said she finally has the closure she has been hoping for.

"After nearly four years, I’m really happy this day has finally came and we’ve won," said Borieo, who made the 7 and a half-hour trip from her home in Nevada the past six weeks to attend the trial. "If this hadn’t happened no company would have had to follow safety guidelines."

Former Far West Water and Sewer employee Nathan Garrett, who suffered damage to his lungs after going down in the sewage tank to try and rescue his co-workers, was also pleased with the jury’s finding.

"(Far West) were judged by 12 of their peers and found to be guilty," said Garrett, who testified for the prosecution on the seventh day of the trial. "I’m happy with the way it turned out. In the four years since this happened (Far West) have never said they were sorry."

Far West had been charged with two counts of manslaughter, one for each of the deaths, but the jury, composed of nine women and three men, found the company not guilty on both counts.

Each count of manslaughter the water and sewer company was facing carried with it a lesser included charge of negligent homicide. While jurors found Far West guilty of negligent homicide in Gamble’s death, the jury was unable to come back with a verdict for the negligent homicide charge in Lanser’s death.

Superior Court Judge Andrew Gould, at the request of the defense, polled each juror about the verdicts after they had been read out loud to the court. He then set a tentative sentencing date for Nov. 10.

With its verdict, the jury believed the prosecution’s theory that Gamble entered the tank to remove a plug that was blocking a gravity-fed line into the tank and was killed when a pump that ran raw sewage into the tank from a different line was turned on.

Lanser, who was employed by Santec, a company Far West was contracting with to do the tank repairs, went into the tank to try and save Gamble, he, too, was overcome. A third worker, Garrett, went down a ladder in the tank but didn’t make it all the way down. Forewoman Connie Charles went down the ladder after Garret and she, too, breathed the toxic gas and had to be rescued.

The crew of Far West and Santec employees had been working on the tank, near the second hole of the Mesa del Sol Golf Course, the entire day replacing pumps and other equipment and were getting ready to leave the work site when the accident that killed the men occurred, according to court records.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.



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