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By: Robert Sanchez

Issue: May 2011

Section: Feature

Tags: Tony Majestic, Todd Stansfield, Sean Student, Michael Budge, Marvin Gilchrist, crash, awards

Rewrite

Nearly seven years ago, 16-year-old Todd Stansfield was behind the wheel of his car when it smashed into another vehicle on a rural, two-lane road in Douglas County. Four people died. Stansfield lived. And ever since he put pen to paper after the crash, he’s been trying to use the power of his words to make sense of that horrific night.

The city college of New York is on a hill that overlooks Harlem, a graph-paper grid of streets sketched among the buildings that constitute the Upper Manhattan skyline. Green lawns dot the neo-Gothic campus; red-brick walk-ups, tenements, cafes, and bodegas line the sidewalks that border the 164-year-old school. To the east sits the historic St. Nicholas Park, where Alexander Hamilton’s post-Revolutionary War home is located. On this busy fall afternoon, students race across the streets on their way to class or to catch the subway home—or to the library, or a bar, or a museum. Amid all of the frenetic activity—the wailing police sirens, the low rumble of trash trucks that barrel through the intersections—Todd Stansfield stands alone.

Todd is 23 now. He’s 5-foot-9, lean and muscular with dark, thinning hair, and a jaw of right angles. His piercing blue eyes look like crystal, so clear and so bright that you trust him immediately. He is polite, perhaps overly so, always wanting to please. He has an almost permanent acquiescence about him—the way he turns his eyes away. People feel his wariness. Todd Stansfield is barely an adult, but he is a convicted killer. A felon. And he worries that is all anyone will ever see.

In Parker, where he’d grown up, Todd felt embarrassed and ashamed. He’d been storefront gossip for years. He was the boy who’d ruined all those families’ lives. He was the boy who’d ruined his own future. He’d done jail time and finished high school, then graduated from college in three years—all while following his probation rules religiously, locking himself inside his parents’ home by seven every night, just like the court told him. He’d wrapped himself in a cocoon of penance, and he’d been good at it. He was one of the best kids his probation officer had ever met. She thought of him as her own son: He was thoughtful, honest—an amazing young man, she said. Still, that wasn’t enough. At home, nothing could change what he’d done.

So in October of 2009, Todd left for New York City. He moved into an apartment with his sister, Lindsay, a hospital pharmacist, who’d offered to be there for him. Todd started to rebuild his life.

Almost a year after his arrival, Todd enrolled in CCNY’s graduate writing program with dreams of one day becoming a professional author. He’d been writing for years now, first at the request of a psychologist, then for his own sanity. He could put things on paper that he’d never say to his parents.

I hate the silence; memories are so easy to come by when there is nothing to listen to…. God, my words are aggravated. It’s amazing, I never thought in my whole life I would end up here.

Back on the CCNY campus, Todd makes his way to North Academic Center, where he shows a security guard his student identification and takes a series of escalators to the sixth floor. The heat is stifling inside his narrow classroom, and the 18 students are fanning themselves with papers and manila folders. A classmate wearing a short skirt shows up late and takes a seat at the head of the long table in the middle of the room.

The students soon review their classmate’s work. Her writing is raw, with lots of sexuality and violence, and the students enjoy it. Todd raises his hand with a question: He isn’t buying one scene in which the protagonist—a young girl—is physically abused in public. “I think that part is unbelievable,” Todd tells the woman. She opens her eyes widely at the suggestion.

Todd eases into his words. The story is good, he tells her: “I just think that someone would help a girl if she were in trouble. I wouldn’t stare and do nothing.”

“Well, that’s how it happens, and I think it’s very real,” the woman shoots back.

There’s an uncomfortable pause. The professor at the other end of the table speaks up. All the students’ stories will need some work if they want a chance at getting published. “Writing is like driving a car in the fog,” she tells the class. “You’re looking at the yellow lines and trying to feel your way home. You need to anticipate the curves in the road.”

Comments

I have to agree with the

Submitted by LivingCountry on Sun, 2012-02-19 20:19.

I have to agree with the above comments. While it is nice to know what happed to Todd after the crash, the last I heard he was a vegetable basically after my parents and a few neighbors pulled him from the car, but are the parents, relatives and friends of all those others ok with this article? The "old man's " name by the way is Michael Gilchrist not Marvin. Or so it says on his cross right up the road from my house. I can't really believe they are blaming him for the accident... though I guess it helped Todd out because he can't be blamed completely for it since Gilchrist was supposedly drinking..... but then again a blood alchohol level just below the legal limit VS speeding WAY over the speed limit on a very very hilly road with bumps ... I don't know...glad to see when they talk about Gilchrist later on they say that not to many people drinking or not could have avoided something like that. My mother has a co-worker that was on the phone with one of the students as the crash happend. They said they were going over 100MPH she told them to slow down then the phone went dead. I was in our arena with a friend when we heard a loud noise and ran up to the driveway to see what it was. Saw fire and ran to the house to get my mom and call the police. I was fairly young at the time so my mom asked me to stay in the driveway as she and my dad ran up to help try to pull the kids out before the fire department even got there. I met her halfway between our driveway and the accident with some blankets for the kids and our fire extinguisher, which we found out doesnt work, so there was no fire extinguisher from anything I remember..... It was not this amazing one man thing. The guy that supposedly pulled them out was that firefighter who at first said the crash was Gilchrests fault. He also said the roads were wet and it was hard to see. The roads were not wet. We could see everything down the road clearly. AND it was not "Twilight" as it says here. It was definitely daylight out. And from what my mom says the boys were not "bloodied". I am glad that Todd has made a recovery. But I agree with the comment stating that : I hope he is writing about safe driving. At least some of the time. I can understand though if he were writing about some things for himself as well. I am also glad that , from what I had heard, there was another guy who stayed got out of the car before the accident to stay with his girlfriend. But I am truly sorry for those who lost a friend or family. member during that crash. Just please know that people around here , my parents and our neighbors, did all they could for all of them involved in the crash to try to get them out before the car caught on fire to much to do anything.

Why?

Submitted by spaceystarr1 on Sun, 2011-06-19 21:18.

I am writing for the family of one of the victims of this Horrific crash.  Actually, I'm writing for myself...they have their own thoughts and feelings about that day, and this article.  I know the article wasn't written to glorify Todd Stansfield, but it seems to make the reader want to empathise with how "terrible" his life has been since the accident.  He's in New York...writing... I am writing this 7 years to the day that my cousin,  Sean Student died.  Fathers Day...AGAIN.  3 days after he turned 17...AGAIN...Year after Year.  I guess I am writing to say and ask that an additional article be written to commemorate the 4 lives lost.  To tell how Those families are getting along now, and to emphasize on Teens driving SAFELY and NOT Carelessly!   Cars arent meant for showing off how fast they can go. 

Todd, according to some of the teens at my familys'  house the day after the accident, told me he was driving fast and wreckless the whole night.  One of them even said, "Todd, slow down, you're gonna kill someone!" , and sure enough, less than 2 hours later he killed 3 people and the next one died the next morning.   

My aunt Karen cries EVERYDAY!!!  His younger brother, whom played hockey side by side with Sean since they were 3 and 4 years old, could no longer stand to be on the Ice without his brother there...gave up his hockey carreer when his brother's was taken from him.  I NEVER thought hockey would be dead in our house.  The jerseys and bags still lay on the table in the garage, dusty and untouched. 

Todd took a lot more than just 4 people's lives that day.  He took my aunt's, my uncle's, and my cousin's (Sean's Brother) as well.  And yet, he still gets to call or be with his family on Holidays and special occasions.  For my family, not only is Seany not there, neither are his parents or brother.

I'm sorry to be so brash.  Please understand my pain and frustration.  I want something POSITIVE to come out of all of this.  I hope when Todd writes, he writes about Teens driving safely,  I wanted him to do advocacy speeches...or perhaps this Magazine could promote these things in some ways. I don't want the 4 lives he took to be in vain,  I want his daily endeavors to be in honor of all of them, as well as those of us left here to deal with our losses.  I want my cousin back and our lives back, but I know that will NEVER happen, so in the meantime, I guess I want peace and awareness so that this TERRIBLE TRAGEDY NEVER HAPPENS TO ONE MORE FAMILY!!!

Thanks you for your time.

Spaceystarr

Article about Todd Standfield in may, 2011 issue

Submitted by ahmielak on Thu, 2011-05-26 17:52.

How dare you resurrect the pain of loss for the people Todd Standfield accidentally killed to sell a magazine. Did you ask the parents of those kids before you wrote this article? Did you get permission to run their pictures?

I personally know the parents of one of the kids who were killed.They still have tremendous trouble processing their son's loss.  Now you have not only dredged it up all over again but spread it to your large magazine reader base - to sell magazines with a sensationalist story. 
Shame on you and shame on 5280 for running it.

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