After allegedly causing a three-SUV crash that injured four people on U.S. 29 in late March, a young Ruckersville man faces a felony driving-under-the-influence charge.
Ian Michael Lowery, 21, appeared in Albemarle County General District Court recently to hear some of the evidence that elevated his case to a higher court.
"It happened so fast," testified Steven Phillips, the driver of one of the vehicles hit from behind. "We didn’t see anything coming."
Phillips said that around 4:30 p.m. on March 30 he had been traveling northbound with three passengers. He said he had slowed or stopped for the traffic light at Lewis and Clark Drive when his Kia Telluride was suddenly struck.
"There was a just a very loud noise," said Phillips. "Actually two noises."
The impact propelled Phillips’ vehicle into the one in front of his, Phillips said under questioning by Susan Baumgartner, the assistant commonwealth’s attorney prosecuting the case.
With a hematoma that put his left arm in a sling for three days, Phillips was one of the least seriously injured people in that crash.
The prosecutor said that the investigating officer found that the Sunday afternoon crash was caused by Lowery at the wheel of a GMC Yukon. She said that after an officer detected red eyes and slurred words, the defendant admitted to drinking four Twisted Teas, a brand of hard iced tea.
The court also heard from 79-year-old Hope Barber, who had been seated in the back seat of Phillips’ vehicle.
"How did you leave the scene?" asked the prosecutor.
"In an ambulance," replied Barber.
Having cautiously made her way to the witness stand and after apologizing to the judge for moving slowly, Barber was asked to recount the injuries that put her in UVa Medical Center in Charlottesville for five nights.
She mentioned seven broken ribs, one of which was displaced, a concussion, a bruised pancreas, and a spinal column fracture. She said she completed a five-week course of OxyContin and now relies on prescription Tylenol, a muscle relaxer and physical therapy to ease her pain.
"My back bothers me a lot," Barber told the court. "I have been sleeping in a recliner."
Lowery’s lawyer, Scott Goodman, conceded at the outset that his client’s blood-alcohol level of 0.09%, slightly above the the 0.08% threshold for drunk driving, would mean there was probable cause to certify the charge to a grand jury to hear the allegations next month in Albemarle County Circuit Court. But Goodman said he wanted to hear about the injuries, which were not logged in the court file.
His client, a heating and air-conditioning technician, came to court May 15 in a checked shirt over a dark T-shirt. Not readily visible was the secure continuous remote alcohol monitoring, or SCRAM, device he was said to be wearing. His lawyer said he has been spending three hours a day, three days a week with Orchard Mountain Recovery, an Albemarle County-based addiction treatment program.
Sitting at the defense table, Lowery did not speak and appeared pained throughout the 25-minute preliminary hearing overseen by Judge Matthew Quatrara.
"The court finds probable cause," said Quatrara. "I’m going to certify."
That means that a grand jury is slated to consider the charge on June 2, when a trial date will likely be set.
The Charlottesville area has seen several instances of suspected drunk drivers causing significant pain and suffering:
In 2016, a Richmond man named Aaron Andre Johnson killed an Albemarle County music teacher named Eric Betthauser on Fifth Street. Johnson received a three-year active term.In 2022, Cristian Salinas-Perez killed chef Justin Tilghman on U.S. 29. A prior offender, Salinas-Perez received a 10-year sentence.On Sept. 18, Mynor Nasario Diaz-Mejía caused three people, including himself, to receive serious injuries during a wrong-way crash on Interstate 64. His case remains pending in Albemarle County Circuit Court.Albemarle County police are investigating whether the April 30 death of 18-year-old Ava Grace Bright, of North Garden, was alcohol related. Police obtained a search warrant for blood samples of the 19-year-old driver, a close friend of Bright’s, but have not announced any charges from the wreck which occurred near the intersection of Irish and Chestnut Grove roads near Esmont.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com