Widow of cyclist killed by alleged drunk driver speaks out

When Sandra Eagleson describes how much her late husband loved her, she uses her celiac disease as an example.

Shaun Eagleson didn’t need to go gluten-free, but he decided to do so to eliminate the slim chance that he could cross-contaminate his wife’s food and trigger her illness.

“He just wanted to smother me and kiss me all the time,” she said, breaking into tears.

Shaun Eagleson, a Fountain Valley resident, was 30 when he died last Sunday night after being hit by a pickup while bicycling along East Coast Highway in Newport Beach. A Huntington Beach man suspected of driving drunk has been charged with murder, felony hit-and-run and possession of a controlled substance in connection with Eagleson’s death.

Police say the Toyota Tacoma being driven by Neil Storm Stephany, 23, a self-described drug-addiction counselor, slammed into Eagleson and didn’t stop.

In an interview punctuated by sobs, Sandra Eagleson said the crash stole her husband, their future and the family they had planned together.

“It’s impossible to describe the hurt and the sadness and the emptiness that I’m feeling,” she said. “To think that this guy took everything from me.… He took my children away.”

Shaun was struck while cycling along the coast near the Los Trancos entrance to Crystal Cove State Park.

“That was his favorite spot to be,” Sandra told Times Community News. “At least he was where he loved doing what he loved.”

Shaun biked everywhere he needed to go in Orange County, where they had moved for his job, Sandra said.

Sandra, now a widow at 31, began shopping Tuesday for her husband’s burial plot.

The same day, the Orange County district attorney’s office charged Stephany with murder in Shaun’s death. Stephany had pleaded guilty to drunk driving in 2011, and in California, drivers suspected of repeated drunk driving can be charged with murder if someone is killed.

Sandra said it would be an appropriate conviction.

“He can’t do this to somebody else. I don’t wish this on anyone,” she said. “I don’t want my husband’s death to be in vain.”

Dobruck writes for Times Community News.