CARROLLTON, Ga. — A jury spent Monday afternoon deliberating vehicular homicide charges against a former Georgia state trooper, whose collision with a carload of teenagers killed two of them.
The judge denied a mistrial motion even though he said the prosecution made what he called an "improper" closing argument.
When prosecutors presented their closing argument Friday, they showed a piece of evidence – the dash cam video of the crash – in which trooper A.J. Scott’s cruiser crashed into the slow moving carload of teenagers. Prosecutors say Scott was traveling at 90 miles an hour seconds before the crash, without using lights or sirens.
Prosecutors enhanced the video during closing arguments, using graphics to describe what was going on. That caught Judge John Simpson and Scott’s defense team by surprise. The defense asked for a mistrial Friday.
Monday morning, Simpson described the video as "improper" and seemed inclined to grant it.
"Are you aware that there’s a huge national discussion in legal treatises and in law reviews about this very type of evidence?" he asked District Attorney Herb Cranford Jr.
"Judge, I'm not aware of a national discussion about --" Cranford began to reply, when Simpson snapped back: "You are required to be aware of that."
However, Simpson decided against declaring a mistrial, and instructed the jury that the video wasn't presented as evidence in the case.
Scott faces two counts of vehicular homicide and other charges. The crash killed 17 year old Kylie Lindsey and 16 year old Isabella Chinchilla, and injured two more.
Prosecutors say Scott is a felon because he was driving his car 90 miles an hour in the dark of night with no lights or siren just seconds before the crash. Defense attorneys argued that the driver of that car should have been charged for failing to yield.
Shortly after the start of deliberations, jurors asked to review the dashcam video again. They also asked to see again a readout that analyzes the telemetry of the trooper vehicle.
State patrol vehicles have the automotive equivalent of an airliner’s black box – It gives data about speed and RPMs and braking – and it breaks down that data into fractions of a second.
By Monday evening, jurors told the judge they wanted to continue deliberating beyond the court's traditional 5pm closing time.
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