RSS
Home
Jury finds man in leaving the scene of an accident "Not Guilty"
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Not guilty was a verdict from a Rock Springs jury in the case of a leaving the scene of an accident
ROCK SPRINGS , WY — Kelly Noble was found innocent Friday on all three charges the state brought against him. The Idaho resident was found innocent of leaving the scene of an accident that involved a death or injury, specifically the death of Tanya Dye of Rock Springs.
The two-day-long trial ended Thursday night. The jury began deliberations shortly after 8:15 a.m. Friday. It took a bit more than two hours to conclude the Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office had not convinced them beyond a reasonable doubt that Noble knew his truck hit a human being on Dec. 7, 2008 before proceeding
on his way.
The accident occurred on the westbound side of Interstate 80 around Point of Rocks, near milepost 130. Noble said while he knew he had hit something, he believed it was a deer until told otherwise by Wyoming Highway Trooper Brandon Dyson. It was Dyson who stopped and arrested Noble.
Dyson testified Noble asked him questions that indicated Noble knew he hit a woman. The trooper said Noble had asked “Is she alright?” or “Is she dead?” and said “This is not my fault.” If Noble had said he had known it was a person he’d hit, the trial could have been quite different. However, Noble testified
he did not know it was a human being.
Without that knowledge, he could not be found guilty of the charges. That made the question of what he knew and when he knew it crucial to the case. Dyson’s onboard audio recording system was not working at the time of the stop and arrest, although the event was successfully caught on videotape.
Without objective evidence, the case largely came down to whether the trooper’s testimony and circumstantial evidence were enough to meet the prosecution’s burden of proof beyond a reasonable
doubt.
The jury decided it did not. “I don’t think that the facts and the evidence pointed to Noble’s having knowledge that he had hit a human being,” defense attorney Michael Newman said. Newman explained why he had his client take the stand. Newman said once the judge ruled Dyson’s statements were admissible — the asserted “is she alright?” statement — he felt he had to bring Noble to the stand to offer his version of the exchange.
“We made a tactical decision that the jury needed to hear the whole story, needed to hear our point of view,” he said. Sam Soule, the chief prosecution in the case, said “part of the difficulty is the wording of the statute” which carried the heaviest penalties of the three Noble had been charged with violating. It does not impose a duty on motorists to check to see if a person was struck.
“Perhaps the legislature could give us some guidance in that direction,” Soule said. John Prokos, Soule’s co-counsel in the case, said after the trial the “state of mind is a difficult thing to demonstrate; it is not simple.” “It is hard to overlook the fact that somebody was deceased in this case. But we are quite comfortable with the fact that a jury of six of our citizens made the decision; that is why we have the jury system,” Proko’s said.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
