BV
Crash
Three felony charges against a Buena Vista man were certified to a grand jury following a preliminary hearing in Buena Vista General District Court last week, all related to a car crash that resulted in a death in March.
Jason Esque, 38, was charged with two felony counts of driving while intoxicated resulting in maiming and one felony count of leaving the scene of an accident in connection with an accident that occurred on March 10 at the intersection of 22nd Street and Maple Avenue. The driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, Donnie Coleman, died on March 14 and an autopsy revealed that his death was a result of the injuries sustained in the accident.
The first witness to testify in the hearing was Deborah Teague, who was in the car with Coleman when the accident occurred. Teague testified that she and Coleman, who was her boyfriend, had had dinner at the Cookout in Lexington on the night of March 10, then returned to Buena Vista and drove around visiting family and friends, which was a regular routine for them. After leaving her sister’s house on 23rd Street and Birch Avenue, they turned onto 22nd Street and drove west, back toward Magnolia Avenue. When they reached Maple Avenue, Teague testified that they were struck by a car she hadn’t seen coming.
“I don’t know if Donnie did, but I sure didn’t,” she said.
The other car, which was traveling north on Maple Avenue, struck the driver’s side of the car. Teague said that she was holding Coleman’s hand when the accident happened and that he was pushed toward her. Behind him, she said, it looked like “the headlights were trying to come into the car.”
After the car stopped moving, Teague said that Coleman had asked if she was okay and she said yes. Coleman told her that he’d thought he’d broken his back again. Teague was able to get out of the car, but Coleman wasn’t able to right away.
On cross examination, Teague testified that, while she hadn’t been looking at the speedometer, she knew they hadn’t been going “more than 15 or 20 [miles an hour].”
“That’s how he drove,” she said. “We’re the people on the interstate going under the speed limit.”
Another witness to the accident, Ashley Montgomery, also testified about what she saw. Montgomery had been following Coleman down 22nd Street when the accident occurred.
“I saw a black vehicle out of my peripheral vision, and I knew it wasn’t going to have time to stop,” she said. The black car, she said, hit Coleman’s vehicle and “pushed it into the intersection.”
“It seemed like he was going 50, 60 miles an hour,” she said. “He was going really fast. It was a very hard hit.”
The black car pushed Coleman’s car “about a houselength” down Maple Avenue before both vehicles came to a stop. Coleman’s car struck a parked car on the side of the street, while the other car turned and ran into a tree. Montgomery, who is a nurse, testified that she called 911 and went to check on the people in the cars. Teague, she said, had gotten out of the car by the time she reached it, but Coleman’s door was stuck shut and she couldn’t open it. She said that Coleman told her to “check on him,” which she took to mean the driver of the other car.
Montgomery testified that when she went to the driver’s side of the other car, she saw the driver crawling out through the passenger door and later identified him as Esque. She noted that his eyes were “glassy” and that “he seemed dazed like he’d been knocked out for a minute.” Montgomery identified herself as a nurse and said she had called 911, at which point Esque “took off running.” She watched him run into an alley on Maple Avenue, back the way he’d driven from.
After police and EMS arrived on scene, Montgomery was asked to stay because the police were looking for the driver and wanted her to identify him. Esque was taken into custody by Lieutenant Chris Plogger and Officer Chris Floyd as they were responding to the scene of the accident. Plogger testified to seeing a man matching the description of what Mongtomery had reported Esque to be wearing (khaki shorts, red underwear sticking out of them and a black leather jacket) and stopping him. The man was put in handcuffs and into the back of Officer Floyd’s vehicle and brought back to the scene, where Montgomery identified him as the man she’d seen get out of the black car and run away.
Teague also testified that she had been undergoing medical treatment at the VA hospital in Salem regularly and that she was still recovering from her injuries. A recent x-ray, she said, indicated that there’s a chance her pelvis is out of alignment, but that it can’t be treated right away because there is still soft tissue swelling that needs to subside before treatment can happen. The recovery, she said, could take up to a year.
“I still have an imprint of the seatbelt on me,” she said. “They said I might have bruised my bones. I didn’t know bones could bruise.”
In addition to her physical injuries, Teague is also in therapy for her grief and trauma.
“It’s supposed to help me get through things and try to have a better life,” she said.
In addition to Plogger, Buena Vista Commonwealth’s Attorney Josh Elrod also called two other Buena Vista Police officers as witnesses. Officer Matthew Slagle, who was the first officer on the scene, testified that when Esque was brought back to the scene, he heard “beating and banging” inside the vehicle, and noted that Esque’s eyes were “red, bloodshot and glassy” and that he had “slowed speech” and was “sweating profusely.” Those observations led him to obtain warrants for the driving while intoxicated charges and a search warrant for blood samples.
Slagle testified that Esque told him that he had been driving from his apartment on 13th Street and Cherry Avenue to check on his wife who was staying at the Budget Inn on 29th Street, saying that he had received messages that contained threats against her. Esque also said that he’d gotten into his car and had just “mashed [the accelerator].” Slagle testified that Esque’s phone was not recovered to verify if he had actually received threats, and that when his wife was asked about it during a welfare check, she said she didn’t know anything about any threats.
Officer Chase Camden, who was called to sit with Esque at the hospital while he was in custody, testified to statements Esque made prior to the interview with Slagle. He testified that Esque said he was afraid and that his wife and son were in danger, that he had “hit something” with his car and that he “got out of the car and just ran.” In response to inquiries from the doctor if he had any drugs any system, Camden testified that Esque had said he’d used meth two days earlier and had used marijuana earlier that day. Slagle testified that, during his interview, Esque admitted to having used marijuana, but didn’t say anything about meth.
Elrod’s final witness was Dr. Shelby Weatherby, a forensic toxicologist who works in the Virginia Department of Forensic Science’s Roanoke laboratory, who testified about the test results for the blood samples taken from Esque. The tests showed no alcohol in Esque’s system, but did test positive for methamphetamine and cannabis. At the time the sample was taken, he had .056 milligrams per liter of methamphetamine in his system, as well as .022 milligrams per liter of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chemical commonly found in marijuana, and .045 milligrams per liter of Delta-9 carboxy THC, which is produced after the Delta-9 THC begins to metabolize in the body.
Dr. Weatherby testified that she was unable to determine when the drugs might have been taken based on the levels found in the system, but did testify that a common effects of methamphetamine use is hallucinations or paranoia. She also testified that some strains of marijuana can produce similar effects, though she was unable to determine which strain was in the blood samples.
Judge Robin Mayer certified the felony charges to the grand jury, which meets today. In addition to the felony charges, Esque is charged with three misdemeanors: one count of reckless driving, one count of driving while intoxicated (first offense) and driving with a revoked or suspended license.
