PANAMA CITY — When they tipped the van back onto its wheels after the crash, beer poured out of the passenger side door, according to a police officer who was involved in the traffic homicide investigation.
By that time, Ryan Ramsey was dead and Margarito Curiel-Agiorri was at the hospital, where he told another officer he had finished at least six beers at a friend’s house before driving back over the Hathaway Bridge to his home.
About an hour after the crash in February 2012, Curiel-Agiorri gave a blood sample that showed his blood-alcohol was nearly the three times the legal limit, according to records and testimony from his trial on DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges.
During his opening statement Tuesday afternoon, prosecutor Bob Sombathy called it a “pretty straight forward case.”
But Chief Assistant Public Defender Doug White used his cross-examinations of traffic homicide investigators to suggest their conclusions were simply “conjecture.”
“He did not cause the tragic accident that led to Ryan Ramsey’s tragic, untimely death,” White said in his opening statement.
Curiel-Agiorri, 44, of Panama City, hung his head and appeared to dab tears from eyes while White addressed the jury.
He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted as charged when the trial concludes, which is expected to be Wednesday, after he turned down a plea offer to serve a sentence of just over nine years last week. He has at least one other DUI conviction.
Though he gave Panama City Police a statement in English after the crash, he has been assisted during the trial by an interpreter. White said Curiel-Agiorri clearly didn’t understand all the questions the night he gave police his statement.
“The officer taking the statement is essentially testifying for him,” White said.
The officer who took the statement testified Curiel-Agiorri seemed to understand both his Miranda rights and the questions he asked.
White highlighted a few inconsistencies in the testimony of witnesses Tuesday and the statements they gave to police after the crash. One officer made a statement that he didn’t smell alcohol on Curiel-Agiorri, and a witness who pulled up behind the crash insisted there were no traffic barrels, though photos from scene made it clear there were.
Ramsey, who was 27, had been out celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday on the night of the crash. Amy Taylor, his girlfriend’s sister, explained the differences in her statement to police and her testimony.
“I had a difficult time expressing myself that night, finding the right words,” she said.
Taylor was driving directly in front of Ramsey when Curiel-Agiorri’s van crossed a 10-foot wide safety lane. She said she moved out of the way before the van struck Ramsey head-on.
The westbound span of the Hathaway Bridge was closed for repairs on Feb. 12, 2012, so westbound traffic was rerouted across the eastbound span.