Posted on 06/18/2003 4:21:20 AM PDT by csvset
Yep, here's another report that verifies that.
Judge rules prosecution fails to prove reckless homicide charge.
By DAVID GRIMES
for The Hawk Eye
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Sonny Morris-El, 32, of Galesburg, Ill., was convicted Friday on one of two charges he faced stemming from a traffic accident that claimed the life of an exotic dancer more than a year ago.
Morris-El appeared before Judge Greg McClintock in Warren County Circuit Court on charges of reckless homicide and aggravated DUI, cannabis.
Morris-El was driving a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice in the eastbound lane just west of Monmouth on U.S. 34 in the early morning hours of Jan. 17, 2002, when he crossed the center line.
Morris-El failed to return to the eastbound lane and slammed into an oncoming semi traveling about 50 mph and driven by Roland Reuter of Potosi, Wisc.
Kristina Valerio, a 25-year-old dancer at Scooter's Cabaret in Gulfport, Ill., was a passenger in Morris-El's car and was killed on impact.
James Mueller, a truck driver for the Sara Lee Bread Company in Burlington, had followed Morris-El and Valerio from just west of Biggsville, Ill., and testified at the trial that the vehicle drifted and swerved on the highway for 8 to 10 miles before the accident.
He said he tried to pass the car, but it was impossible since the car would speed to 65 mph and then drop to 35 mph.
Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Adam Hart responded to the accident.
Warren County State's Attorney Albert "Chip" Algren asked Hart what he found when he arrived on the scene. Hart said both the semi and automobile had sustained extensive front-end damage, with the truck coming to rest in a field.
Morris-El's car was on the north side of the road and facing south.
Asked about the condition of the driver and passenger from the car, Hart said Valerio was sitting in the driver's seat with the door post pinned under her head.
"She was nude from the waist down," Hart said, "and facing the back of the car. The driver's side door was open and her legs were hanging out on the road."
Morris-El had been thrown from the car during the collision, with the vehicle continuing to travel around him in a clockwise rotation before coming to rest north of the highway.
He said the man was unconscious and in a fetal position.
"He had a coat and shirt on, but his pants and underpants were down around his ankles," Hart said.
The Warren County Coroner's report indicated Valerio died of blunt trauma to the head.
Lab test results from a urine sample taken from Morris-El during his treatment at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, Ill., indicated a presence of cannabis.
The fact that Morris-El and Valerio were engaged or attempting to engage in some sort of sex act could have been viewed as an approximate cause of the wreck and that, Warren County Public Defender Scott Shipplett said, "would break the chain of causality." But Algren maintained that whether the two were engaged in sexual activity had no bearing on the statute in question. Regardless of the amount of cannabis in Morris-El's body at the time, it did serve as an approximate cause in impairing his ability to operate a motor vehicle.
McClintock ruled that the prosecution did not prove its case on the reckless homicide charge, but agreed that the DUI charge requires no specific amount of cannabis be proven, only its presence.
Morris-El will remain at the Warren County jail until his sentencing June 16.
I know this is a very serious subject, what with a woman dead & all, but BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
The driver may not have been the (ahem) professional involved here...
I'd say that the cause was the gal was humping him while he was driving down the road. She could have at least have been facing forward.
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