Times-Picayune

ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — A St. Tammany Parish grand jury Wednesday cleared a St. Bernard Parish firefighter of criminal wrongdoing in an Oct. 5 wreck near Mandeville that killed three people.

Salvadore Cetrone, 44, was booked with three counts of negligent homicide in the wreck on Interstate 12 near the Louisiana 1088 overpass that killed three women from Picayune, Miss.

The grand jury in Covington returned a "no true bill," indicating that it found insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges against Cetrone.

Cetrone, who lives near Slidell, was driving eastbound on the interstate about 3 p.m. when an aluminum ladder fell off the back of his pickup truck, according to State Police. An eastbound 18-wheeler swerved to avoid the ladder and crossed the median, slamming head-on into a Lexus and clipping two other westbound vehicles, police said.

Three women in the Lexus — Anita Sheffield, 55, and her two daughters, Betsy Sheffield, 27, and Karen Sheffield, 23 — were killed, police said.

Cetrone said he had secured the ladder with rubber straps and that it broke loose while he was driving.

Copyright 2007 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company