Jurors deliberated for nearly three hours Tuesday before finding Jason Crowell, 24, of Tyrone, guilty of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence. He was also found guilty of DUI and accident involving death while not properly licensed but was found not guilty of furnishing intoxicants to minors.
\nThe charges stemmed from the April 14, 2005, one-vehicle crash along Route 45, Franklin Township, that killed Sharon Reed, 18, of Warriors Mark.
\nCrowell faces up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced following completion of a pre-sentence investigation ordered by Judge Stewart Kurtz.
\nReed was ejected through the rear window of the vehicle and the car came to rest on top of her. Also in the car were passengers Duane Day (the owner of the car who was also ejected) and Scott Borgess, Mrs. Reed\u2019s younger brother.
\nThe jury began deliberating shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday and returned a verdict just before 2 p.m. The panel of nine men and three women had been selected Monday in a session of Huntingdon County Criminal Court.
\nDuring testimony Tuesday, five witnesses for the commonwealth stated Crowell was the driver at the time of the accident.
\nBorgess and Day testified he was driving at the time of the crash. Two AMED emergency responders testified Crowell told them he was the driver, with one saying Crowell also said he was not wearing a seat belt. Additionally, the investigating state police trooper, Kenneth Butler, when asked by District Attorney Robert Stewart III what his investigation revealed, stated Crowell was the driver at the time of the accident.
\nCrowell elected not to take the stand and the defense did not call witnesses.
\nTom Forr, Crowell\u2019s attorney, reminded the jury during his closing argument that the defendant is presumed innocent and that guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He asked the jury to consider the credibility of witnesses.
\n\u201cDid Scott Borgess have anything to gain or lose by his testimony?\u201d Forr asked.
\nHe pointed to testimony from Tuesday that showed Borgess, Reed and Day were friends but that Crowell was not well known to the brother and sister. He asked the jury to consider who was the friend of Borgess and Reed \u2014 Day and not Crowell.
\nForr pointed out that the foursome had been drinking and that Borgess and Day said they can\u2019t recall much of what happened the night of the crash as they drove the back roads of the Sinking Valley area.
\nForr also pointed out that Borgess admitted he and Mrs. Reed smoked marijuana the day of the crash and admitted the drug was his but said in court he couldn\u2019t remember where he got it.
\nStewart told the jury in his closing that Forr had offered only speculation and reminded the jury of the testimony of the two AMED personnel who stated Crowell told them he was driving.
\n\u201cThe person who was driving said so,\u201d Stewart said.
\nHe told jurors that to acquit Crowell they would have to believe that both the AMED medic and the EMT lied. He said Borgess and Day are not \u201cperfect\u201d but said they were believable on the witness stand.
\n\u201cJust as expected, Borgess wouldn\u2019t tell you where he got it (marijuana),\u201d Stewart said. \u201cBut what difference does that make in this case.\u201d
\n\u201cSharon Reed was deprived of her life … by this defendant,\u201d Stewart said, adding that when people, alcohol, cars and speed are combined \u201cyou end up getting people killed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jurors deliberated for nearly three hours Tuesday before finding Jason Crowell, 24, of Tyrone, guilty of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence. He was also found guilty of DUI and accident involving death while not properly licensed but was found not guilty of furnishing intoxicants to minors. The charges stemmed from the April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}