POINT PLEASANT — Jurors were dismissed Tuesday morning prior to the start of a trial for a Leon man accused of the death of two people following an accident in 2007.

According to officials, a plea agreement was worked out.

Judge Thomas C. Evans III told potential jury members that trials are a complex process, and he explained the court and what the defendant had been charged with.

In the early morning hours of March 15, 2007, Timothy Allen McCormick was driving his 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra north on W.Va. 2 when he allegedly struck an all-terrain vehicle near Rayburn Road, killing the two riders.

Kimberly Plants Cottrill of Leon was pronounced dead at the scene and Charles Green of Letart died later at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington. Both were riding the 2003 Honda ATV.

McCormick was arrested by deputies with the Mason County Sheriff’s Department on two counts of DUI causing death. He was indicted on those charges by the grand jury in May 2007.

Last September, McCormick entered the plea agreement and agreed to plea guilty to one misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence (DUI) causing death. He would have faced a maximum sentence of one year in jail and/or a fine of $1,000. The other count would be dismissed per the plea agreement.

When McCormick was to be sentenced in November, Evans set aside the plea agreement and ordered the defendant to stand trial.

But on Tuesday, Evans told potential jury members that an issue had come up with the defense. While preparing for the trial, defense attorney James Casey hired an accident reconstruction specialist who left his former employer, preventing the defense from locating him.

“They have done due diligence in trying to find him,” Evans explained. “But if they had notified me the night before, all of you would not have had to sit here.”

Evans said he was granting the defense’s motion to continue the case, but at that time a plea agreement was being worked out between the defense and the prosecution.

Thirty minutes after the jury was dismissed, Evans announced that there was a plea agreement.

McCormick agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of DUI causing death. He now faces two years in jail.

Casey requested that sentencing be delayed for McCormick so that he could put his affairs in order, which Evans denied.

“This case has been going on for two years,” Evans stated. “It needs to be finished.”

McCormick will enter his plea and be sentenced at 11 a.m. Friday. Evans went on to say that a family representative for the victims as well as the defendant will be given the opportunity to address the court.