quinta-feira, 18 de fevereiro de 2010

Prosecution rests its case in Francis Hernandez trial


Expert for defense questions who was behind the wheel during crash


By BRANDON JOHANSSON
The Aurora Sentinel

CENTENNIAL | An expert said Wednesday it is “foolish” to assume Francis Hernandez was behind the wheel of an SUV during a triple-fatal crash in September 2008.

John Koziol, an accident reconstruction expert and former police officer, testified during Day 5 of Hernandez’s trial that witness statements and a high-tech airbag system in the Chevrolet Suburban prove there was a second person in the SUV that night.

“We know that there were two people in the car, a fact that has been overlooked and omitted in the majority of this case,” he said. “I think it would be foolish, yes (to assume Hernandez drove)”.

During an animated round of cross examination, Deputy District Attorney Rich Orman scoffed at the notion, pointing to a wealth of evidence putting Hernandez in the driver's seat -- including his own statements after the crash and his DNA on the driver's side airbag.

Prosecutors say Hernandez, 25, was speeding at 80 mph when he slammed into a pickup truck at East Mississippi Avenue and South Havana Street, killing Patricia Guntharp, 49, and her passenger, Debra Serecky, 51. The impact sent debris crashing into a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop, pulling 3-year-old Marten Kudlis out of the store, killing him. Hernandez fled the scene and was arrested later at his Denver apartment, police said.

Koziol was the second defense witness to take the stand Wednesday after prosecutors rested their case around lunch time.

Koziol, who has been in the courtroom for some of the trial, said he disagreed with testimony Tuesday from a prosecution expert that in certain high-speed crashes such as this one, the passenger’s side airbag deploys no matter what.

Koziol insisted that is not the case and said the passenger’s side airbag only deploys when an adult is seated there.

The airbag evidence is central to the defense’s case as they argue Hernandez wasn’t the driver -- though they seem to have conceded he was at least in the car.

The driver, they say, was Hernandez’s cousin, Christian Hernandez, who police never questioned or contacted after the crash. Christian Hernandez has since been killed.

Jurors appear to be considering the argument that Christian Hernandez was the driver.

At the end of testimony from the prosecution’s last witness, Aurora police Detective Johnny Lee, a juror submitted a question that said: “Knowing that Christian Hernandez may have been the driver,” why didn’t police interview him?

Lee, the lead investigator in the case, said police didn’t interview him because most evidence pointed to Francis Hernandez as the driver. He said he viewed Christian only as a possible witness.

“I still to this day have no doubt that Francis Hernandez was the driver of that truck,” he said.

Lee’s testimony -- which lasted about three hours and included more than 90 minutes of tough questioning from the defense -- at times seemed to bolster the defense’s case. He said the first affidavit he filed wrongly stated that five witnesses at the scene saw only one person in the SUV. In fact, one witness said he saw two people.

He also testified to a few other peculiar aspects of the case, including that he mistakenly deleted the original arrest affidavit and didn’t know how a document from the SUV with Christian’s name on it ended up on his desk.

The defense’s case will continue Thursday.

The prosecution said the case could conclude with closing arguments as early as Thursday afternoon.

The Aurora Sentinel