Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Defense attorneys Tony Anderson (left) and Richard Lawrence confer in Salem during a preliminary hearing for their clients.

Twelve extra months were tacked onto Jeffrey Dupree's sentence for his refusal to take a breath test.

Tracie Nininger and Jeffrey Dupree attend a hearing in Roanoke County General District Court. They both failed field sobriety tests in February.

James Robert Harmon had no time to react.

As he prepared to dump a load of asphalt over some pipe along Electric Road, he heard a shot. He looked up to see oncoming headlights just as a pair of vehicles crashed into his tractor.

He remembers nothing else until he came to, holding his head beside the road. A few feet away, the body of his co-worker Richard Slone was pinned against a dump truck by the tractor's rear blade.

After listening to testimony from Harmon and others Thursday, a judge in Roanoke County General District Court convicted two drivers involved in the crash that killed Slone of driving under the influence.

Tracie Nininger, 42, and Jeffrey Dupree, 32, are also charged with involuntary manslaughter in Slone's death. Judge Vincent Lilley ruled there was sufficient evidence to allow the manslaughter charges against both drivers to be considered by a June 6 grand jury.

Lilley sentenced both Nininger and Dupree to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine for the DUI convictions. He also convicted Dupree of refusing to take a breath test and sentenced him to an additional 12 months. Both Roanoke County residents immediately appealed their convictions and remain out of jail on bond.

The chain reaction crash that killed the 46-year-old Slone happened soon after midnight on Feb. 20 by Ogden Road near Tanglewood Mall. Slone and Harmon were part of a construction crew filling a ditch at the side of the road with asphalt after another crew laid down pipe. Slone drove the dump truck while Harmon operated the tractor, scooping asphalt from Slone's truck and putting it in the ditch on the right side of the road. They were working in the right lane, which had been blocked off by cones.

According to testimony, the left lane was open, but flagmen were on hand to stop traffic because Harmon sometimes had to back into the left lane in order to turn the tractor.

Roger Hawks, one of the flagmen that night, testified that as he stood in the left lane, he saw a Hummer speeding toward him with a black pickup truck right behind it. He waved his arms and shouted, but had to jump out of the way to keep from being hit, he said.

He turned and saw the Hummer H3 strike the rear blade of the tractor. Almost simultaneously, the black truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche, smashed into the back of the Hummer.

Assistant Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Brian Holohan showed the judge a photograph depicting the rear blade of the tractor and Slone's body trapped between the front of Hummer and the side of the dump truck.

Nininger, who was driving the Hummer, told a police officer she'd had a glass of wine with dinner earlier that night. After she failed a field sobriety test, she was arrested and taken to the Roanoke County-Salem Jail, where she told Officer Shane Snowden, "I lied a little bit at first" about what she'd had to drink, he testified.

A breath test showed her blood-alcohol content to be 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Dupree, the driver of the Avalanche, had to crawl out a window of his truck because the door was jammed. He also failed a field sobriety test but refused to take a breath test.

Tony Anderson, Nininger's attorney, and Richard Lawrence, attorney for Dupree, focused their questions on how well-lit the construction area was, how far the tractor's rear blade may have protruded into the traffic lane, and whether Harmon was moving forward or backing up.

Before the judge certified the involuntary manslaughter charges, Lawrence argued that no evidence had been presented that Dupree had contributed to Slone's death -- merely that he had struck Nininger's vehicle.

Lilley responded that evidence suggested Dupree may have been following so close that Harmon felt the crash as one impact.

Employees at Cornerstone Bar & Grill in downtown Roanoke have said that Dupree and Nininger talked and had drinks there not long before the crash. The issue was not discussed in court Thursday.

After the hearing, Lawrence said, based on his interpretation of the evidence, the tractor backed into Nininger's lane. "It was not a preventable accident."

Outside the courtroom, Lawrence expressed condolences to Slone's family for their loss.

Ronnie Bratten, Slone's brother-in-law, spoke about how Slone had intended to go to his 17-year-old daughter's prom. She and her 15-year-old brother now live with their mother in Radford.

Melissa Crouch, one of Slone's sisters, said his daughter has a message on her MySpace page saying her father is her hero, "because he died working for her and her brother."