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Cabbie killer sentenced to 40 years

Joshua Dutton pleads guilty to second-degree murder, robbery
October 25, 2016

A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in a 2014 slaying of a Dewey Beach cab driver.

Joshua Dutton, 25, will serve a 40-year jail sentence for the murder and robbery of William Toomey, a driver for Delaware Beach Taxi. Dutton, who confessed to the murder after his arrest in September 2014, used his belt to strangle Toomey from the rear passenger seat of Toomey’s cab. He then stole Toomey’s cab fare and then abandoned Toomey’s body and cab off Country Living Road in Millsboro.

Speaking to Delaware Superior Court Judge Richard F. Stokes in Georgetown Oct. 25, Dutton apologized to Toomey’s family, many of whom were in court for the plea hearing and sentencing. Dutton, wearing longish hair and a goatee, said the murder was the result of irrational, irresponsible and immature actions on his part.

“I did take another man’s life,” he said. “This is something I will have to live with the rest of my life, as well as Mr. Toomey’s family.”

Dutton’s attorney, Thomas Pedersen, said Dutton’s actions were in service to his addiction to heroin. Dutton, despite being a high school graduate from Bel Air, Md., was homeless at the time of the murder.

Speaking of the night of Aug. 20, 2014, when he killed Toomey, Dutton said, “I just wish I could go back and, unfortunately, I can’t.”

Toomey’s sister, Cassandra Webb, said Toomey was the sort of person that would give the shirt off his back, one who had just recently completed a three-year battle with cancer that caused part of his tongue to be removed. Webb said the day before the murder, Toomey was excited to have a scrapple sandwich and soda because he couldn’t eat solid food for three years.

“He completed our family,” she said. “I’m not OK because my soul is gone. He (Dutton) killed our family. We needed him (Toomey) so much. Nobody should endure what we’ve endured. We loved our brother.”

Webb said after Toomey’s death, the family has grown to distrust other people and has suffered additional tragedies, such as the death of Webb’s daughter and her uncle.

Kelly Baker, Toomey’s niece, said she had to tell her then-6-year-old daughter that her godfather was gone, something her daughter has had trouble understanding. Toomey’s father, overcome with emotion during the proceedings, declined to speak.

Prosecutor Caroline Brittingham said the murder was “an intimate, violent death.” According to Delaware State Police, Toomey picked up Dutton around 7:42 p.m. from the Sea Esta IV motel on Route 1 in the area known as the Forgotten Mile. Toomey then drove Dutton west on Route 24 toward Millsboro. The cab’s GPS system then showed the vehicle stopped for 10 minutes in the Parker’s Point development near Millsboro. The cab then resumed driving toward Country Living Road, where it was found. Police matched the cab’s route to the GPS system. A passerby who saw Dutton driving the cab on Country Living Road described him to police, and he was arrested in September when he confessed to the crime.

Dutton was eligible for the death penalty until the state’s capital punishment law was overturned by the Delaware Supreme Court in August.

Stokes agreed with the recommended sentence from the prosecution and defense, handing Dutton a 50-year sentence, suspended after 35 for the second-degree murder charges and 10 years, suspended after five, for first-degree robbery. All told, Dutton will serve 40 years behind bars, followed by probation once released. After reading the sentence, Stokes said to the Toomey family, “He was indeed a special person,” before abruptly ending the proceedings.

 

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