Decorated Marine charged in Tampa DUI manslaughter case

4 Tours of duty. Wounded three times and has three Purple Hearts. He has a Bronze Star. None of this seems easy to connected to someone charged with killing someone after getting behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol. This doesn't sound like the type of person capable of doing that, but it is what he has been charged with. Pedro Rivera died because of this and his family has to grieve and go through a trail. Not an easy thing to do. Captain Sciple's family must be in shock and everyone knowing these men will not look at the world the same way. Who failed who and why does this keep happening?

Decorated Marine charged in Tampa DUI manslaughter case
By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, August 11, 2010


TAMPA — A Marine Corps captain decorated with three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star was charged with DUI manslaughter Tuesday, more than three months after a fatal head-on crash on Interstate 275.

Authorities say Capt. Scott Patrick Sciple, 37, was intoxicated the morning of April 25, when he drove a 2010 Chevy Impala the wrong way on the interstate near Bearss Avenue and collided with a southbound Malibu.

Court records put his blood alcohol level at 0.255, about three times the limit at which the state presumes impairment.

The crash occurred just before 4 a.m. The other driver, 48-year-old Pedro Rivera, was pronounced dead several hours later at St. Joseph's Hospital, said Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Larry Kraus.

"This is a horribly tragic case for everyone involved," said Sciple's attorney, John Fitzgibbons.

Sciple had served four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and was back in the United States recuperating from injuries before returning for a fifth tour, Fitzgibbons said Tuesday. He would not elaborate on Sciple's war injuries.
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Decorated Marine charged in Tampa DUI manslaughter case