DRIVER IN CRASH ADMITS NEGLIGENCE

Driver In Fatal Accident Says He Wasn't Reckless

MEDINA - Jeremy Warren had beer on his breath and traces of marijuana
in his blood, prosecutors say, the day he wrecked his pickup truck in
rural Medina County, killing his best friend.

Prosecutors say Warren, 25, was impaired and driving recklessly,
passing cars on the right and veering left of center, before the
truck smashed into a culvert on Greenwich Rd., killing Dennis Ellis,
24.

But as Warren's trial began yesterday in Medina County Common Pleas
Court, defense lawyer Dennis Paul urged jurors to listen carefully to
the testimony of medical experts.

He said they would show that Warren was neither drunk nor under the
influence of drugs when he was driving, although he may have had a
beer the morning of the accident and smoked marijuana days before.

"Don't get lost in gibberish," countered Assistant County Prosecutor
Scott Salisbury.

Warren, an apprentice plumber from Wadsworth, slept at Ellis' house
the night before the accident. When the friends awoke, they drove to
McDonald's for breakfast, then to Steve's Infield, a sports bar.
Warren drank a beer and shot pool. Ellis mingled with friends.

They left about 3 p.m. and headed to Seville.

The crash occurred about 3:45 p.m. Feb. 27. Warren told troopers of
the State Highway Patrol he was playing with the radio and didn't
notice the truck drifting left of center.

When he looked up, a car was bearing down on them.

Warren told troopers he jerked the steering wheel and the truck flew
off the right side of the road and into a ditch, smacking a concrete
culvert. Ellis was dead at the scene.

Defense lawyers insisted Warren's inattention was negligent, not reckless.

They also dispute results of blood and urine tests that Medina County
prosecutors say show Warren was under the influence of alcohol and
marijuana at the time of the crash.

If jurors decide Warren was negligent, he can be found guilty of
vehicular homicide, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by six
months in jail. But if they find he was under the influence of
alcohol and drugs or driving recklessly, he faces up to five years in
prison.

Trooper Byron Foxx, who investigated the crash, said Warren smelled of beer.

Kathy Barber, an emergency room nurse at Medina General Hospital,
said she smelled beer on Warren, too, but added that her nose was
hypersensitive because she was pregnant.

She said she more vividly recalled Warren's reaction when he learned
Ellis had died.

"He pulled the blankets over his head and sobbed," she said.