EASTPOINT — More than two years after a May 2012 collision on the Gorrie Bridge took the life of an Eastpoint woman, prosecutors have dropped vehicular homicide charges against the 21-year-old Apalachicola man whose truck veered head-on into the woman’s car as she returned home from church.
On Sept. 9, Assistant State Attorney Jarred Patterson told Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the homicide charges against Chandler B. Moses, 21, of Apalachicola.
Moses was driving a 1997 Toyota pickup westbound, about 9:26 p.m. May 2, 2012, on the Gorrie Bridge about 1.7 miles west of Bay Shore Drive, when he drove left of the center line and his vehicle struck a 2005 Kia Sedona driven by Vicky Harris Segree, 54.
Segree was killed, and Sabrina L. Hicks, 39, of Eastpoint, a passenger riding with her on their return from Wednesday evening services at the First Pentecostal Holiness Church in Apalachicola, was taken to Weems Memorial Hospital with serious injuries.
Moses, whose truck had overturned, was taken to Bay Medical Center in Panama City and treated for a compression fracture of a lower vertebra in his back. A blood draw taken within one to two hours after the crash found no evidence of alcohol or drugs in his system, other than that of the opioid given to Moses in the emergency room for his back pain.
Florida Highway Patrol Cpl. Scotty Lolley investigated the crash, which shut down traffic on the bridge for several hours and required drivers to make a lengthy detour if they wished to cross the river.
On July 15, 2012, and Aug. 9, 2012, Moses received speeding tickets in incidents unrelated to the crash. It was not until Dec. 4, 2012, seven months after the crash, that Moses was charged in the traffic fatality. At that time he was charged with failure to drive within a single lane, and not wearing a seat belt. On Jan. 4, 2013, Moses paid a fine of $158 for the lane violation, and $108 for the seat belt infraction.
In March 2013, Assistant State Attorney Robin Myers filed a criminal charge of reckless driving, which because it involved a fatality, was upgraded to vehicular homicide. To prove such a charge, which can be punishable by up to 15 years in prison, it must be shown the driver displayed a “willful and wanton disregard for safety of persons or property.”
Depositions: Myers took depositions on Oct. 22, 2013, from two key witnesses, Hicks as well as Emily Hatfield, who was driving with passenger Levi Thompson westbound on the bridge and witnessed the collision.
Hatfield noted at the outset of her testimony that she had dated Moses in the 10th grade, in 2010 or 2011.
Hatfield said it was not yet dark, the weather muggy and hot, and she was driving about 50 mph on the bridge when she noticed Moses, his lights on low beam, as it passed her Mitsubishi Gallant.
She estimated Moses was driving “max, I would say somewhere between 65 and 70 (mph).”
“I said, ‘That’s Chandler,’ and I do remember him coming up on me kind of fast, and I remember saying, ‘Who’s that? Who’s that coming up on me like that?’ And then I seen him to the side,” she said in her deposition.
Hatfield said the wreck then occurred about 100 feet in front of her car.
“I was just driving, and … it was like slow motion,” she said. “It was so gradual; he just gradually just drifted into the other lane, like it wasn’t like a jerk, and went straight in the other lane.
“I told Levi, I said, ‘Is he going to correct himself? Should I honk the horn?’ And at that time I didn’t see headlights because of the hump in the bridge,” Hatfield said.
Hatfield said she noticed Segree’s minivan try to avoid being hit by Moses’ truck by going “up against the rail.”
In her deposition, Hicks confirmed that Moses’ truck, after returning to the westbound lane, had veered into Segree’s lane, and that she was trying to move away at the time the collision occurred.
Hicks said that before impact she had been looking out over the water, taking in “the glare of the moon. It was just bright, illuminating the water,” she said.
Hicks said Segree “slowed down when she saw Chandler pass, and was trying to get out of the way when she saw him passing” a car on the bridge.
“Look at that idiot,” Hicks recalled Segree saying.
“It wasn’t like he just came right over,” Hicks said. “He just veered, if you understand what I’m saying.”
In his report, Lolley said he “did not notice an odor of alcohol, or observe any other indications of impairment” on the drivers.
“An attempt was made to determine a speed for (Moses’) vehicle in this case,” he wrote. “However, due to a lack of physical evidence, it was impractical to make a determination in this case.”