Jury awards Penland estate compensation, negligence
considered in hit and run
Randall ‘Shorty’ Penland
By Becky Long
Publisher
Nearly five years to the day after Randall “Shorty” Penland died from injuries sustained in a hit and run, his family received some closure.
A civil court jury was tasked to answer the question: Was the death of Randall David Penland caused by the negligence of Raymond Hohmann III. They answered yes, according to the Clerk of Court’s office.
The jury also ruled in favor of the Penland family in connection to what the estate of Randall David Penland was entitled to recover from wrongful death in the civil suit. The defendant was ordered to pay damages to Penland’s estate. .
“After all the legal procedures, this is a final closure on their behalf as well as the entire family,” said Shorty’s uncle, Dwight Penland. “I’m so glad this is finally over, as far as legal procedures.”
In the early morning hours of Nov. 16, 2018, “Shorty” Penland, 49, was found in the roadway on Highway 64 east near Ridgeline Apartments. A caller reported the incident around 2:30 a.m. and Penland was pronounced dead at the scene.
The family was never given an explanation of how the fatality occurred, but in 2023 Hohmann, 36, pleaded no contest in Swain County to misdemeanor obstruction of justice and death by vehicle.
The pleas were in lieu of felonies the state had initially brought against him. Hohmann was sentenced to 270 days in the Clay County Detention Center.
Dwight Penland said after 14 days of testimony from witnesses on behalf of the plaintiffs and defendant the jury unanimously reached a verdict which included a $400,000 settlement, though the amount is not official yet.
“Like myself, Shorty had his faults and failures, but my mind reflects back to the nearly 600 friends who came to Bannister Funeral Home to pay their last respects to Shorty and his family,” said Penland. “These friends have not, and will not, be forgotten.”
Penland also expressed appreciation to the judge as well as the family’s attorneys James “Jud” Downs and Andy Howell.
“They not only were the attorneys involved, but they became friends as well,” he said. “As Andy Howell stated on more than one occasion during this trial, ‘In my country boy way of thinking, a friend cannot be replaced.’
“Still, whether it be a birthday, a Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day, there will never be a day they won’t think of their son,” he said referring to Shorty’s parents, David and Anna Dean Penland.