Dalton Cason, a 26-year-old white man, was under the influence of fentanyl and cocaine when he struck and killed a 7-year-old Black boy named Logan Sharpe last year in Georgia, according to a toxicology report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
But Pierce County prosecutors have refused to charge him with vehicular homicide, which would be the appropriate charge under state law because he was driving while under the influence of drugs, according to a Georgia criminal defense attorney.
And it was only after the boy’s family began talking about the case on social media that Cason was even charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence – nine months after the deadly incident and three months after the results were finalized.
“It’s a slap in our face because they have the evidence and everything they need to charge Dalton with vehicular homicide but they won’t do it,” said Logan’s mother, Shaunte Sharpe, in one of several interviews conducted by Atlanta Black Star to compile this exclusive report.
“Like my son’s life didn’t matter.”
It also appears the Georgia state trooper who responded to the scene lied in his report to protect Cason — twisting the words of an eye witness who later provided a signed statement contradicting what the deputy had attributed to him in his report.
Georgia state trooper Chase Middleton claimed the 81-year-old Black man who was sitting on his front porch when the truck struck the boy had told him the boy was standing in the street when he was killed in an apparent effort to blame the child for his own death.
But Clifford Simon wrote a signed witness statement saying he had told the cop that Locke had been walking on the sidewalk when he struck so hard that his body flew in the air and landed on the street, indicating that Cason had driven upon the sidewalk when he struck the child.
Another witness, Myra Vanessa James, who showed up after the crash, wrote a witness statement saying that Logan’s older brother, Keisean, was very distraught, repeatedly saying that the truck had driven on the sidewalk.
“He came on the sidewalk and hit my brother, he came on the sidewalk and hit my brother,” she quoted him as saying in her signed statement.
And another witness, Patricia Wilson, signed a statement confirming that Simon, her brother-in-law, had told the cop that the child was on the sidewalk prior to being struck by Cason.
But Middleton, whose wife is Facebook friends with Cason, claimed the opposite in his report which is why Cason was never charged with vehicular homicide.
The family also accuses Middleton of turning off his body camera during the investigation, which may be true considering there has been no mention of body camera video in any of the reports.
Compromising the Investigation
The responding officers also allowed Cason’s family to remove items from inside his truck after the crash rather than impound the vehicle to search it for evidence, according to the boy’s great-grandmother, Minnie McBride, who is accusing Cason of having purchased drugs in their neighborhood prior to the crash that killed Sharpe, pointing out that Cason has a prior arrest for cocaine possession from 2022.
“The cops were standing right there, letting them remove stuff from his truck,” McBride said. “The didn’t search him and they didn’t search his truck because they let his family get what they wanted and whatever he had just bought.”
By that time, the investigation had already been compromised because Cason had moved his truck before investigators even arrived on the scene, making it impossible for them to conduct a thorough analysis of what had taken place.
And now the family is concerned the state will destroy the evidence uncovered in the toxicology report which would allow Cason to escape any accountability in the death of the boy who was struck and killed while playing outside his home.
“The fine print at the bottom of the toxicology report says they can discard those specimens because it’s been a year,” said Amaka Imamu, founder of Journey Black Foundation, an Atlanta-based company that advocates for the civil rights of Black people who has been working with the family to raise awareness about the case.
“This is a similar situation to Ahmaud Arbery, how that started out,” Imamu added, referring to the case of the 25-year-old Black man killed while jogging in Georgia in 2020 after he was chased down by three white men and shot to death, only for those men to escape accountability for nearly three months until a video of the shooting went viral, placing public pressure on state investigators to file charges against all three men who are now serving prison sentences.
In fact, Arbery’s aunt, Carla Arbery, is part of the team trying to raise awareness on this case because of the parallels between the two cases.
“It took 74 days before any charges were filed in my nephew’s case,” Arbery said. “And in Logan’s case, Dalton was not arrested until nine months later.”
“I feel that the justice system has failed Logan like they failed Ahmaud.”
“Logan Just Got Hit”
The incident took place on May 19, 2024, in Patterson, a rural town in southern Georgia with a population of less than 1,000 people where “everybody know each other,” said McBride, who lives on the same block as her granddaughter, the boy’s mother.
Shaunte Sharpe said she was doing chores when her four children asked to go outside and play, including two sons and two daughters, with Logan being the youngest.
“I said, ‘y’all clean up the house and then I’ll let y’all go down the street and play,” she said, which they did, so she gave them permission to play outside.
Minutes later, her oldest son, Keisean, came running into the house in a panic, telling her that Logan had just been struck by a truck.
“’Mom, call the police, call the police, Logan just got hit,’” she described him telling her.
She ran out the house and down the street and saw her son lying facedown in the street.
“I run straight to Logan and I’m screaming,” she said. “I get to him and the first thing I do is check for a pulse to see if he was still with us but the moment I touched his neck, I couldn’t feel anything and my heart just broke.”
“He had a gash on his head, his arm was broke, there was vomit and a little bit of blood on the road, his hip was split, like you could see the white meat so I’m screaming, I’m screaming and a crowd starts to gather.”
She said she was in a daze but eventually walked up to Cason, who was standing outside his truck further down the street with a white man and woman, possibly his father and wife.
“The girl turned around and looked at me and her face was bloodshot red, like she had been crying her eyes out,” Shaunte Sharpe said.
“I looked at Dalton and said, ‘I know you did not mean to kill my child, at least apologize, say something to me that you acknowledge me but he did not acknowledge me. He stayed looking forward and didn’t say anything. He did not look at me one time.”
The Police Report
The incident report filed by Trooper Middleton stated Cason not only moved his vehicle prior to investigators arriving, he was also given the choice to do a blood draw which he agreed to do.
(Cason) stated he saw a large group of kids on the sidewalk. As he approached the kids, he stated that he did not see Sharpe run into the roadway but saw him in the road just prior to impact. He applied the brakes but could not stop in time.
After impact, Cason stated he got out of the vehicle to check on Sharpe. He then called 911. At this time, he moved his truck to the shoulder of the roadway as a large crowd began to gather around Sharpe. As first responders arrived, Cason stayed on scene, standing next to his truck with a deputy present during the investigation. I asked Cason if he would give a voluntary blood draw. He agreed to do so.
If it is true Cason saw the children playing on sidewalk as he was driving in that direction but did not see Logan run into the street, only seeing the boy right before impact, then it’s possible took his eyes off the road at some point, perhaps to look at his phone as so many drivers do these days.
“The state patrol told me they’re going to check his phone to see whether he was on the phone distracted when the accident happened,” McBride said, but she is not certain they actually did that.
“I ain’t seen none of that in the reports.”
Middleton also stated the following in his report which was contradicted by the witness statement signed by Simon, the Black man sitting on his front porch when the crash occurred.
Witness 1, who was on the front porch of 3319 Tyre Bridge Road, stated that kids were playing in the roadway. He stated that the did not see initial impact but did see the truck traveling through the neighborhood. He stated that the truck did not appear to be driving excessively or recklessly.
But Middleton never interviewed any of Sharpe’s siblings or cousin who were part of the group of children playing together that day – who most likely would have provided a different account.
It is also not clear from the initial report what the trooper would have done had Cason refused the blood draw but the trooper also added that Cason had the car towed to a company of his choice for the mandatory five-day hold after traffic fatalities which is to allow cops to search it for evidence of a crime.
But by then, his family had already removed items from inside the truck, according to McBride. And there is no evidence they actually searched the truck during that five-day period.
The Blood Test
Middleton submitted Cason’s blood to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on May 28, 2024 and the results came back on October 29, 2024, showing he tested positive for cocaine, fentanyl and benzoylecgonine which is a metabolite of cocaine.
However, the family did not learn of the results until December. And it was only when Imamu, the founder of Journey Black Foundation, got involved and started posting about the toxicology reports on social media in January that led to Cason’s arrest on a misdemeanor DUI charge on February 2.
“I don’t feel like he would have been charged if we wouldn’t have went to social media with it,” said Shaunte Sharpe.
“They didn’t charge him until we put it on Facebook and it started getting traction and everybody started tagging the police department and the sheriff on Facebook.”
But the bottom of the toxicology report states that “biological evidence (body fluids and tissues) and proof determination evidence will be destroyed after one year” which is concerning to the family because May 28 marks exactly one year since the GBI received the blood to test, even though it took them five months to finalize the results.
Meanwhile, the family is trying to raise money for an attorney in their fight for justice, but nothing will ever be the same for them.
“He was the life of us because he brought us together,” said Shaunte Sharpe. “He was goofy and bubbly and real spunky.”
“It’s not fair to us because I had to bury my 7-year-old son, and he can’t grow up to have kids or graduate from high school or see his siblings grow up. And his siblings watched this. They watched their brother die in front of their eyes.”
Online court records from Pierce County show that Cason’s trial is scheduled for June 19 and it will go before a judge, not a jury.
“I just want justice,” Shaunte Sharpe said. “I just want Dalton to be held accountable because he know what he done was wrong.”
