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Hearing takes place in vehicular-homicide of Marines
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Atty. J. Gerald Ingram tried to raise questions Friday about blood testing done on his client, Donald P. Williams, the day Williams killed three Marine Corps recruits in an accidental crash with his semi tractor.
Williams, 44, of Bainbridge Ave., Austintown, is charged with several counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.
Ingram, who is defending Williams, questioned in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Edward Ying-ling, a criminologist from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s crime lab in Columbus, about the amount of drugs found in Williams’ blood and the margin for error of the testing.
Yingling said Williams’ blood contained diazepam (also known as Valium) and nordiazepam, two anti-anxiety medications. Ying-ling said the amounts were 158 milligrams per milliliter of diazepam and 190 milligrams per milliliter of nordiazepam.
Ingram has described that as only a “therapeutic” amount of Valium.
Under questioning, Ying-ling said the lab acknowledges that its testing could be off by 20 percent to 25 percent and that the “cutoff” for diazapam and nordiazepam is 150 milligrams per milliliter.
The cutoff level is the amount of a drug required for a lab to report a positive test for that drug.
Under questioning by Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, Yingling agreed that he was comfortable that diazepam and nordiazepam were in Williams’ blood but that the amount of the drug in his system could be off by 20 percent to 25 percent.
When Ingram questioned Yingling regarding the handling of Williams’ blood when it came to the lab, Yingling said he received Williams’ blood sample April 13, 2010, and tested it April 15, along with 75 other samples.
The sample arrived at the lab April 7 and was logged in by an administrator, Lt. Tod Lee, Yingling said.
“Do you have personal knowledge of what Lee did with the sample after he received it?” Ingram asked. Yingling said he did not, but he knows the procedures that are supposed to be followed.
It was the second hearing in the case to determine whether evidence police collected the day of the March 31, 2010, accident should be thrown out.
Prosecutors said Williams was “drug drunk” and speeding when he hit the back of a vehicle containing four Marine Corps recruits on their way to complete their enlistment. Charges against Williams, who is free on bond, could place him in prison for 40 years.
The Marine Corps vehicle was stopped at the traffic light on state Route 5 at Burnett Street just west of Warren. Three of the recruits died.
A previous hearing focused on the testimony of a highway patrolman who questioned Williams on March 31, 2010, in St. Joseph Health Center, where Williams was taken for injuries he suffered in the accident.
Trooper Chris DelGenio testified that Williams had “slow, slurred speech” and “was continually falling asleep or nodding off” during the interview.
Judge Andrew Logan will rule later on whether to suppress the evidence.