Case in bicyclist's death goes to the jury
Friday, April 1, 2011 08:16 PM
BY JOHN FUTTY
The Columbus Dispatch
The fate of Edward Scott Miller, accused of being drunk and reckless when his pickup truck struck and killed a bicyclist on a Hilliard road is in the hands of a Franklin County jury.
The Common Pleas jurors began deliberations yesterday at 12:30 p.m. after hearing seven days of testimony and nearly four hours of closing arguments. They went home shortly after 5 p.m. and will continue deliberating Monday morning.
Assistant Prosecutor Keith McGrath told jurors that alcohol consumed by Miller on the morning of the crash "led directly" to the collision with bicyclist Steven Barbour on westbound Cemetery Road just before sunrise on July 18, 2009.
As evidence of recklessness, he referred to a police investigation that determined Miller's pickup was straddling two lanes when it rear-ended the bicycle, which Barbour was riding on the white line dividing the lanes.
Defense attorney D. Timothy Huey continued to insist, as he had in his opening statement, that Barbour was "in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong clothing and equipment."
He presented witnesses who testified that Barbour, 58, was wearing dark clothing on a dark road. No witness could testify that the lights on Barbour's bicycle were operating before or after the crash.
Miller, 30, of Granville, is charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, to be decided by the jury, and two misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated, to be determined by the trial judge, Stephen L. McIntosh.
[Link to original article]
BY JOHN FUTTY
The Columbus Dispatch
The fate of Edward Scott Miller, accused of being drunk and reckless when his pickup truck struck and killed a bicyclist on a Hilliard road is in the hands of a Franklin County jury.
The Common Pleas jurors began deliberations yesterday at 12:30 p.m. after hearing seven days of testimony and nearly four hours of closing arguments. They went home shortly after 5 p.m. and will continue deliberating Monday morning.
Assistant Prosecutor Keith McGrath told jurors that alcohol consumed by Miller on the morning of the crash "led directly" to the collision with bicyclist Steven Barbour on westbound Cemetery Road just before sunrise on July 18, 2009.
As evidence of recklessness, he referred to a police investigation that determined Miller's pickup was straddling two lanes when it rear-ended the bicycle, which Barbour was riding on the white line dividing the lanes.
Defense attorney D. Timothy Huey continued to insist, as he had in his opening statement, that Barbour was "in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong clothing and equipment."
He presented witnesses who testified that Barbour, 58, was wearing dark clothing on a dark road. No witness could testify that the lights on Barbour's bicycle were operating before or after the crash.
Miller, 30, of Granville, is charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, to be decided by the jury, and two misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated, to be determined by the trial judge, Stephen L. McIntosh.
[Link to original article]
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