By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Drumright man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on a first-degree manslaughter charge in the accidental death of Cushing body shop owner Curtis Sams, who was operating a leaf blower in front of his business at 224 E. Main Street when he was fatally struck by a pickup truck at 8:23 am on Sept. 28, 2020.
The driver, Christopher Clint Collier, 37, had four prescription medications in his blood — the short-acting tranquilizer Xanax, a sedative used as a sleep aid called Ambien, the muscle relaxer Flexeril, and the anti-depressant Prozac, Cushing Police Detective Jerrod Livergood testified Wednesday in a preliminary hearing.
Cushing Police Officer Kurt McKean testified when he arrived at the scene, “Mr. Collier became emotional. He advised me he was not intoxicated and would take the (blood) test.” Under cross-examination from defense attorney Royce Hobbs, the officer testified, “(Collier) was crying. He wanted to see his mother at the police station.”
“At the police department I interviewed him. He was very emotional. Mr. Collier kept telling me he tried to stop the truck. He drove to Ripley, left his child off at school and he was driving to work,” when the crash occurred, Cushing Police Sgt. Jack Ford testified. Asked if he fell asleep, “He said he didn’t know. He saw a pedestrian he thought was carrying a gas can.”
“He said he went to bed at 11:30 pm or midnight. He took Ambien before he went to bed. He told me he hadn’t had anything to drink. He had to be at work at 8 am,” and was running behind, the Cushing police sergeant testified.
Questioned by chief prosecutor Kevin Etherington, the Cushing police detective said that the victim was dead at the scene. “The vehicle was a block away to the east. The defendant was eastbound on Main Street, a four-lane highway. He crossed both westbound lanes and struck the pedestrian and street signs, then traveled back on the road and stopped on the north curb,” the detective testified.
The detective testified that two days later he called the defendant: “I wanted to tell him I obtained a search warrant on his truck to get the content of the black box. I seized two phones, a pill container, an empty bottle of whiskey and six sealed bottles of rum.
“He said he didn’t remember much of anything. He said he was not drinking. He’d been to the doctor a week before this. He’d wake up and not know where he was. He said he hadn’t driven since the doctor’s visit until that day. He said he didn’t know what happened.”
On cross-examination, the detective said that the defendant had a prescription for the four drugs that were in his system, according to a blood test after the fatal accident. “He had no alcohol in his blood. The phones were not in use at the time of the accident. The black box indicated speed wasn’t a factor.”
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Matt Ledbetter, a supervisor over the traffic homicide unit, testified, “The crash data in the air bag module for his 2003 Chevy 3/4 ton was more limited than what we record now. I don’t believe the air bags had deployed in this case.
“The pedestrian was struck before the data recorded the curb strike at 38 mph,” the trooper testified.
“I believe he was trying to hit the brake and hit the pedal,” of the accelerator, the trooper testified — adding “there was zero braking.”
At the close of the preliminary hearing Wednesday, Special District Judge Katherine Thomas ruled that there was sufficient evidence to bind Collier over for trial on a first-degree manslaughter charge, which was filed in the alternative as either caused by driving under the influence of drugs or by driving left of center.
Collier remains free on $75,000 bond pending his arraignment in trial court on July 23 before Payne County District Judge Phillip Corley.
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