Jury convicts driver in death of Panthers fan after playoff game

A Charlotte man who was speeding and driving drunk when his car struck and killed a Carolina Panthers fan after the team’s 2016 playoff win was sentenced Tuesday to up to 16 years in prison.

After a full day of deliberations, a Mecklenburg jury convicted Greg Wheeling of second-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 17, 2016, death of Kelli Putnam on South Boulevard. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Mims Evans sentenced the 32-year-old Charlotte man, a graduate of Providence High School and East Carolina University, to between 156 and 200 months.

Wheeling and Putnam were linked by one of the city’s biggest sports moments – the Panthers’ resounding win two seasons ago over the rival Seattle Seahawks.

Witnesses said both Putnam and Wheeling had been drinking that day – Putnam as one of the tens of thousands of Panthers fans inside Bank of America Stadium, Wheeling with a group of friends watching the game at a Plaza Midwood bar. Subsequent tests showed that both were legally drunk.

But as Putnam was leaving the game on foot, Wheeling was demanding the keys of his powerful Audi sports sedan from his group’s designated driver, witnesses said. A mile down South Boulevard, after weaving in and out of traffic at almost twice the posted speed, Wheeling’s car struck Putnam as the 28-year-old tried to cross the street. Her body was catapulted 191 feet.

The families of the driver and the dead woman filled most of the seats in the courtroom during the five days of testimony. Jury deliberations began Monday afternoon and lasted about a day, with the panel returning to the courtroom to deliver its decision not long after their lunch break Tuesday.

On Monday, Evans told the jurors they could convict Wheeling on the lesser, related charge of involuntary manslaughter. But the 12 members opted instead for the more severe penalty.

Prosecutors say Wheeling’s blood-alcohol level of .13 was more than three times over the restricted limit placed on Wheeling by an earlier DWI arrest.

When the playoff game ended and his group was about to leave the bar, Wheeling begrudgingly gave his keys to a designated driver, Ashley Campbell, for the ride to drop off friends at the I-485 light-rail station, Campbell testified. But as Campbell drove, Wheeling pushed down on her right knee to compress the car’s accelerator and make the car go faster, she said.

“He said, ‘Kick it. Give it what you got. Feel what it can do,’ ” Campbell, a registered nurse and one of the six people in the Audi S4 that day, told the jury. “It made me super uncomfortable. I just said, ‘Stop.’ I think he was aggravated at me.”

When the group pulled into the Shell station at East and South boulevards for a restroom stop, Josh Siff, Campbell’s date that day, said Wheeling ordered Campbell to turn over his keys.

“I’m going to drive my own f---ing car,” Wheeling said, according to Siff.

Wheeling then pulled back onto South Boulevard and accelerated. Soon, Siff and Campbell testified, the Audi was traveling at 60 mph or more as Wheeling swerved in and around game-day traffic. The speed limit on South Boulevard is 35.

Siff testified that as he turned to look out his side window because he was so disturbed by Wheeling’s driving, he saw a woman dressed in black appear on the sidewalk. Then there was a crash.

According to WBTV, an Observer news partner, Putnam’s boyfriend Bronsyn Stewart said her body was thrown high into the air before it hit the ground and began tumbling along the road – winding up almost 65 yards from where she had been struck.

In their report, police said “speed and alcohol” had been a factor in the collision. In an unusual twist, defense attorney George Laughrun asked jurors to apply the same standards to Putnam.

She, like Wheeling, had been drinking throughout the day, Laughrun said. After the game, Putnam and Stewart had made stops at Tavern on the Tracks and the Gin Mill on their walk toward Mac’s Speed Shop, where Putnam was a longtime waitress. After her death, Putnam’s blood-alcohol level was recorded at .20.

On the witness stand, Siff described how the woman dressed in black darted unexpectedly into the middle of the street.

“Without warning, she ran in front of the car. She never stopped. She never looked in your direction?” Laughrun asked.

“Yessir,” Siff replied.

According to WBTV, Laughrun told jurors in his closing remarks that “not every tragedy is a crime. This is a tragedy.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Jury convicts driver in death of Panthers fan after playoff game."