ALBION - Throughout a largely clinical day of testimony inside Noble County Courthouse Wednesday, Samuel Davis Jr. sat generally emotionless listening to reports on the March 2010 crash that killed his girlfriend and led to his seat in the defendant’s chair.
Davis, 36, of 3762 W. Old 30, Warsaw, is on trial for charges of causing a death by driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of more than 0.15 percent, causing a death by driving with cocaine in his system, causing a death by driving with marijuana in his system – all Class B felonies – and Class C felony driving while intoxicated causing death. He was charged following the March 2, 2010, crash that killed his girlfriend – 22-year-old Victoria Lynn Anderson – in which he was found to reportedly have a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.25 percent and cocaine and marijuana in his system.
The case was moved from Kosciusko County to Noble County after Davis petitioned for and was granted a change of venue earlier this year.
During the second day of the four-day proceedings, the jury heard detailed explanations from a deputy coroner who pronounced Anderson dead, crash scene investigators who traced the small Saturn’s path before it wrapped around a tree just off the Old 30 shoulder, and a medic who treated a battered Davis on a life flight to a Fort Wayne hospital.
Deputy Coroner and Medical Examiner Mike Wilson described a gruesome scene that early March morning when he was summoned to the scene of a fatal vehicle crash when a green Saturn sedan drove off the westbound Old 30 roadway and hit a tree near the intersection with CR 350W, Warsaw, just before 4:30 a.m. Wilson said he found Anderson’s lifeless body in the passenger seat, blood draining from the woman’s ears, nose and mouth.
Wilson pronounced Anderson dead of blunt force trauma as a result of a motor vehicle accident. He was clear to state to the jury she was alive prior to the collision and died nearly instantaneously at the crash.
A lengthy testimony by Warsaw Police Department Lt. Kip Shuter followed, in which the Fatal Alcohol Crash Team member showed a video he made of the crash scene as dozens of officers worked around him. Shuter then detailed the path the westbound Saturn took from the time it ventured off the roadway until it slammed into a tree.
Shuter said from his analysis of tire marks at the scenehe concluded that after the Saturn left the roadway, it dropped off the right edge of the shoulder and went into a slight spin on the frosty grass, whipping it passenger-side-first into the tree and wrapping it around it.
Shuter told the jury there was no evidence of braking, accelerating or any driver response at all at the scene.
Another FACT member, investigator Mike Cox, testified next, addressing the ability to react while under the influence of drugs and alcohol and saying that both slow reaction times and could be an explanation for why no reactions were made in the crash.
The most aggressive questioning of the day came with Parkview Hospital flight nurse Cindy McDonald on the stand, as the prosecution and defense argued about Davis’ classification of reported inebriation. McDonald said Davis admitted to her to consuming two beers at some point before the crash, which she noted in her report, along with a recollection that she smelled alcohol on his breath as she treated him during the flight from Kosciusko Community Hospital to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.
But defense attorney Scott Lennox argued that nowhere in her report did McDonald note that Davis was “impaired.” McDonald and the prosecution both responded by saying McDonald’s report was clear in stating Davis admitted to drinking two beers and that McDonald smelled beer, but Lennox asked where in the report it stated “impairment.”
“Keep looking,” Lennox said, as McDonald flipped through her report.
“The answer is nowhere,” said Lennox.
Noble Superior Court Judge Robert E. Kirsch finally stopped the banter, saying the jury has the evidence.
The day closed with testimony from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s deputies who also worked the crash.
