WILKESBORO
A Wilkes County man on trial for second-degree murder told authorities that he had been drinking alcohol before a collision that killed two people, but experts for the prosecution and defense disagree about his blood-alcohol content at the time.
Ricky Dean Norman, 55, is on trial in Wilkes Superior Court on two counts of second-degree murder, driving while impaired, exceeding a safe speed and failure to reduce speed in connection with the collision on March 26, 2007, that killed Harley "Harl" Carter, 82, and his wife, Helen Luffman Carter, 73.
The Carters died at the scene, a T-intersection where Pleasant Ridge Road meets Old U.S. 21.
Norman, who had two broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a broken pelvis, a broken sternum, two broken bones in his left forearm and a broken right heel, was taken to Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin.
Under the supervision of a state trooper, blood was drawn from Norman at the hospital at 8:03 p.m. -- two hours and 14 minutes after the wreck. Tests showed a blood-alcohol content of 0.03, according to results from the State Bureau of Investigation lab.
That's well below the legal limit of 0.08.
But prosecution witness Paul Glover, an expert from the Forensic Tests for Alcohol Branch of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, testified Thursday that Norman's blood alcohol content at the time of the wreck was 0.08.
Glover said he used a technique called retrograde extrapolation. He determined a rate at which Norman's body was eliminating alcohol, and calculated backward to determine the blood-alcohol level at the time of the wreck.
But yesterday, defense witness Andrew Mason, a forensic toxicologist, told jurors that the results are not scientifically supported, in part, because people don't eliminate alcohol at constant rates.
Mason testified that Norman's blood-alcohol content would have fallen into a range of 0.05 to 0.09 at the time of the wreck.
"A single answer, a correct answer does not exist here; you have to incorporate the uncertainty into the determination," he said.
Accident-reconstruction experts for both sides testified that Norman's truck was traveling about 60 mph. The posted speed limit is 45 mph.
Both sides agree that Norman had the right of way traveling south on Old U.S. 21, and that Harley Carter pulled out in front of him as he made a left turn from Pleasant Ridge Road onto Old U.S. 21.
Trooper Chuck Olive of the N.C. Highway Patrol, an accident-reconstruction expert, testified Thursday that if Norman had been driving at 45 mph he could have steered to the right or braked in time to either miss the Carters' car or hit it in the rear.
Andrew Webb, an accident-reconstruction expert for the defense, told jurors yesterday that Norman's view of the Carters' car was blocked by a northbound vehicle turning left in front of him, from Old U.S. 21 onto Pleasant Ridge Road.
Webb said that by the time the Carters' car cleared the turning vehicle and became visible, Norman's truck was just 103 feet away. The collision happened a half-second later.
The defense began and rested its case yesterday. Closing arguments are expected Monday.
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com
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