Why no ticket nor arrest for the trucker who broke the law to murder biker Ike Woodard? Why is Pellissippi Parkway named in honor of a convicted hit-and-run killer of a biker in Blount County?
Use apple cider vinegar for pain control to avoid DUI arrest in the After Life...
Jury returns verdict: Dallas Ray Skinner found not guilty of vehicular homicide
By Austin Baird
austin.baird@thedailytimes.com
Dallas Ray Skinner, a 50-year-old Vonore man, was found not guilty in the vehicular homicide case the state made against him for his role in the crash that ended the life of a longtime Maryville resident.
When the 12-person jury handed down its verdict Thursday, Ryan Desmond and Clinton Frazier, assistant district attorneys for Blount County who presented the case, had proven unsuccessful in their attempt to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Skinner was criminally responsible for the death of 49-year-old Randall Bowers.
Bowers was killed Aug. 10, 2008, when Skinner’s car and Bowers’ motorcycle collided on Six Mile Road just south of Chota Road and the motorcycle was knocked off the pavement.
Keith Lieberman, Skinner’s defense attorney, presented three main points to defend his client and sway the jury in his favor.
First, the trooper who first responded to the scene, James Dalton of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, cited Skinner for improper passing and a couple minor violations and released him from the scene instead of arresting him on more serious charges.
The trooper talked to witnesses at the scene and collected evidence, Lieberman argued, but it wasn’t until eight months after the wreck that a full investigation of the scene was completed and Skinner was charged with vehicular homicide.
Second, the crash reconstructionist the state called as an expert witness, Trooper Charles Massengill of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, testified under oath to the jury that he could not be 100 percent certain of his findings.
He was confident there was sufficient evidence on the road and the vehicles to prove Skinner caused the crash, Massengill said, but there was an off chance he was wrong.
Last, Bowers had hydrocodone in his system at the time of his death. Even though he was well within the therapeutic range, according to Shawn Hilsenbeck, the medical examiner, Lieberman suggested the painkiller he used intermittently after a couple knee surgeries could potentially have influenced his decision making and riding ability that day.
“There are no winners in a case like this,” Lieberman said. “A good man is gone, and two families are forever impacted. Nobody is out celebrating.
“We really appreciate the jury reaching the right decision. The easy thing to do would have been to get caught up in emotion, but they didn’t do that.”
Vehicular homicide trial goes to jury
By Austin Baird
The Daily Times
9 November 2011
MARYVILLE, TENN. -- The state of Tennessee rested its vehicular homicide case against 50-year-old Dallas Ray Skinner on Wednesday, and a Blount County jury has started its deliberation process.
A verdict is expected to be reached today, according to court observers, though the jurors will have time to sort through the facts in an attempt to reach a unanimous decision.
Skinner is charged with vehicular homicide for his alleged role in the Aug. 10, 2008, crash involving his Ford Taurus and a Victory Vegas Polaris motorcycle operated by 49-year-old Maryville resident Randall Darrell Bowers.
According to testimony and reports from Tennessee Highway Patrol, the collision — which took place on Six Mile Road about the length of three football fields south of Chota Road — sent Bowers flying from his motorcycle. He died from blunt force trauma and internal hemorrhage before he made it to the hospital.
Blount County Assistant District Attorney Ryan Desmond argued that Skinner passed a truck near Chota Road and recklessly continued in the left-hand side of the two-lane road in an attempt to pass Bowers. Skinner then crossed the solid yellow lines into the right lane of traffic, Desmond said, and made contact with Bowers’ bike twice.
He said the car’s rear quarter panel tapped the bike, causing Bowers to lose control and slam into the front of Skinner’s car. The motorcycle then flipped on its side and rolled several times which sent Bowers into the air, until he landed more than a hundred feet away in a driveway in front of Kagley’s Chapel Baptist Church.
Desmond turned to crash reconstructionist and THP Trooper Charles Massengill to try to convince the jury that Skinner was to blame for Bowers’ death.
“(I can tell) the car was positioned going toward the right lane because of reflective gear from the left side fork of the bike (that was) implanted in the front right bumper of the Taurus,” Massengill said. “There’s (also) no evidence to suggest the motorcycle being in the left lane.”
Skinner’s lawyer, Keith Lieberman, however, questioned Massengill’s methods. “(Massengill) said himself that he can’t be 100 percent certain,” Lieberman said. “He also wasn’t there to collect evidence the night of the accident ... and it took him more than eight months to conduct an investigation.”
There was a dramatic moment when Skinner waived his right established by the Fifth Amendment and opted to testify on his own behalf.
“(Bowers) would not leave me alone, he just wouldn’t,” Skinner told the jury. “I thought he kicked the back quarter panel, like some bikers will do ... but I never crossed the center line and I never touched that motorcycle.”
During cross examination by Desmond, where Skinner acknowledged that he sped up and was traveling in excess of the 45 mph speed zone. He also told the court he had stopped at a service station moments before, but was speeding in part because he had to use the restroom.
“Why didn’t you brake?” Desmond asked.
“I don’t know,” Skinner said. “I wanted to get back over. I didn’t know what was coming around that corner.”
He also said he felt just “one large impact,” which contradicted Massengill’s testimony.
Another point of contention came from the testimony of Stanley Sellers and Anita Duplantier, both friends of Skinner who were driving behind when the collision took place. Other witnesses claim Bowers slowed enough to wave at people in the parking lot and talk to Jimmy Rex Gredig, a friend of Bowers who owned the cabinet shop where churchgoers were talking at the time of the wreck, but Sellers and Duplantier said that Bowers blew threw the stop sign.
“He did not stop at the stop sign,” Sellers said. “His throttle was wide open.”
If the jury finds Skinner not guilty of vehicular homicide — a charge that could land him in prison for as many as 10 years — they will then be asked to consider lesser charges ranging from reckless aggravated assault, criminally negligent homicide and reckless homicide. All of those charges also are felonies.
The jury reconvenes today at 9 a.m.
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