Former Sailor Guilty in Crash that Killed Passenger

By Sam Thrift Thursday, October 06, 2011

Anna Grace Stuckey, a 22-year-old Norfolk resident, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Wednesday in Williamsburg/James City County Circuit Court for a single-vehicle accident in December 2009 that left 25-year-old sailor Zachery Romena dead.

A large portion of the trial focused on how intoxicated Stuckey was the night she lost control of her car on Barnes Road in James City County. The prosecution and the defense both brought expert witnesses before Judge Samuel Powell III to explain whether Stuckey, who was 20 at the time of the accident, was legally intoxicated.

After consuming two beers at a party in Richmond, the defendant was driving Romena and a friend back to Norfolk – where they were stationed in the Navy - when they realized they needed gas. They used their GPS to search for the nearest gas station, which led them off Interstate 64 to the winding and unlit Barnes Road in Toano.

The defense claimed the lack of streetlights on the unmarked road and the placement of warning signs contributed to the defendant’s car spinning out of control into a tree stump, killing Romena instantly and seriously injuring Stuckey.

Police testified investigators had to wait until the next day to examine the scene because the wooded area where the crash occurred was so dark. The defense used pictures of the road to show the single road sign indicating drivers to slow down for the sharp turn ahead, saying it didn’t leave Stuckey enough time to decrease her speed.

Prosecutor Cathy Black said Stuckey would have known to slow down on a road unfamiliar to her in the pitch black if her judgment hadn’t been impaired by alcohol.

Although Stuckey’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was .06 percent when her blood was drawn at 1:36 a.m. at Riverside Hospital, Black argued that the defendant had a BAC of .09 percent at 10:55 p.m., the time the crash happened. It is illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 percent or higher.

Dr. Connie Luckie, an expert in forensic toxicology, explained for the prosecution that the average person eliminates .015 percent of BAC per hour, which would have left the defendant with a BAC of .09 percent during the accident at the lowest metabolic rate.

Black also used the contents found in Stuckey’s car - a whiskey bottle, an Alcoholics Anonymous book and a document from a substance abuse program – to show that the defendant was aware of the consequences that come with drinking and driving.

The defense brought their own toxicology expert, Dr. William Cooke, who discredited the notion that you can predict someone’s BAC. He said stress from the accident and drugs administered to ease Stuckey’s pain could have slowed down the rate her body eliminated the alcohol.

Fentanyl, the drug given to Stuckey for her pain after the accident, played another role in the trial. When discussing if the defendant had been speeding, Black said Stuckey had told officers she thought she was going over the speed limit. The defense argued she was not coherent because of the drug and would have claimed she was not speeding otherwise.

Investigators said the needle on the car speedometer was stuck on 41 mph because of the accident, giving an estimation of the driver’s speed when the car hit the tree stump. There were skid marks on the road, showing the car did slow down before impact. The speed limit on Barnes Road is 40 mph.

“She was clearly underage, drinking and driving on a road she did not know … a road the officer described as a dangerous road you would have to be crazy to drive at 40 mph,” Black said in her closing argument. “The point is she has been in AA, in treatment and was underage. She knew she shouldn’t have been driving.”

Judge Powell found Stuckey guilty of involuntary manslaughter and driving too fast for highway conditions. Powell dismissed charges of DUI and aggravated involuntary manslaughter because he felt there wasn’t enough evidence to prove she had a BAC of .08 percent or greater. He did convict Stuckey of underage possession of alcohol and underage DUI, which is given for BAC over .02 percent to those under the age of 21.

Stuckey will be sentenced Dec. 13.