A St. Paris man entered into a plea agreement in relation to a motor vehicle crash that resulted in the September 2022 death of his fianceé, China Marie Stapleton.

Chester R. Tobias, age 41, was originally indicted by a Champaign County Grand Jury in June of this year on nine counts, including operating a vehicle while under the influence of a listed controlled substance or a listed metabolite of a controlled substance; operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them; aggravated vehicular homicide; aggravated vehicular assault; and vehicular assault.

Originally pleading not guilty after the indictments, Tobias pleaded guilty on Sept. 26 to one count of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a drug of abuse or a combination of them; two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide; and two counts of vehicular assault.

During sentencing by Judge Nick A. Selvaggio in Champaign County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 23, Tobias received a sentence of 48 months in prison. The judge imposed consecutive sentencing on all but one of the counts in order to “protect the public from future crime or to punish the defendant.”

According to court documents, “consecutive sentences are not disproportionate to the seriousness of the defendant’s conduct and to the danger the defendant poses to the public.” Selvaggio did not recommend and disapproves of “early release” prison programming for Tobias.

In addition, the court imposed a mandatory driver’s license suspension of nine years. Tobias was also sentenced to post-release control and ordered to pay court costs and fines.

According to her obituary, Stapleton, age 31, of St. Paris, Ohio passed away on Sept. 12, 2022 at 8:18 p.m. as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident on Sept. 10, 2022. The crash occurred at U.S. Route 68 at Springfield-Urbana Pike in southern Champaign County. Tobias was listed as her fiancé in the obituary.

Stapleton, a mother of six including two children she shared with Tobias, was a 2008 graduate of Graham High School. At the time of her death, she was employed by Studebaker’s Country Restaurant near Westville. Her obituary noted she was an organ donor.