Hearing held in fatal wreck

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

A grand jury will now hear the case of a Bland County man charged with felony involuntary manslaughter in a fatal September 2007 car wreck.
Testimony provided by five witnesses Thursday morning during a preliminary hearing in Wythe County General District Court convinced Judge J.D. Bolt that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with the charge against Melvin Chadwick Compton.
Compton was the driver in a Sept. 20, 2007, single-vehicle accident on U.S. 52 in Wythe County that killed his cousin, Stanley Joel Tickle of Bland. During Thursday’s hearing, Bolt also found Compton guilty of a misdemeanor second offense driving while intoxicated charge and a charge of failing to wear his seat belt.
Compton, 37, had pleaded not guilty to both misdemeanor charges at the start of the hearing.
According to court records, Compton’s first DWI conviction stemmed from an incident on April 11, 2003, in Bland County.
For the second DWI conviction, Compton was sentenced to 60 days in jail, with 30 days suspended, and a fine of $2,500, with $1,000 of that total suspended. He also was ordered to pay court costs and given a year on probation and a three-year suspension of his driver’s license.
After the hearing, however, Compton filed an appeal of his conviction to Wythe County Circuit Court and his attorney, Marty Parks, said that Compton won’t serve his jail sentence unless the charge is upheld in the higher court.
The seat belt violation resulted in a $25 fine, plus court costs, which Compton didn’t appeal.
The next grand jury is scheduled to meet on April 21, during which the members will determine if the prosecution’s evidence is sufficient to send Compton’s felony charge to trial.
To start Thursday’s hearing, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Lee Harrell called Virginia State Trooper J.G. Armstrong to testify about the crash. Armstrong accompanied Compton to Wythe County Community Hospital’s emergency room, where Compton was treated for injuries sustained in the wreck.
Using photographs taken the night of the accident and the next day, Armstrong outlined the accident scene on Route 52, 2.2 miles north of Virginia 717, where Compton and Tickle were found with a red 1997 Ford Explorer.
Armstrong said he was dispatched to the accident at about 8:35 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2007, and arrived about 10 minutes later. The trooper testified that he spoke with Compton at the scene and that Compton told him he had been traveling southbound on Route 52 when a deer ran out in front of his vehicle, causing him to swerve.
But based on the position of the car, which was facing southbound while blocking the northbound lane, and other indicators, Armstrong said he determined that the vehicle was traveling northbound when the car veered off the right side of the road and struck an embankment.
Tickle was found deceased lying in the road, while Compton was standing near the Explorer when he arrived, Armstrong said.
As he spoke with Compton, Armstrong said he noticed that Compton’s eyes were bloodshot and that his speech was slightly slurred.
“I began to detect the odor of alcohol coming from his person,” he said.
Armstrong added that he found a half-empty bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 alcohol lying near Tickle’s body and multiple opened and unopened Miller Lite containers in the vehicle.
“Mr. Compton stated that he had had two bottles of wine and some pain pills,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong added, though, that Compton didn’t answer him when he asked him when he had taken the pain pills and consumed the wine, testifying that Compton only said that he hadn’t had any alcohol after the accident.
Compton wasn’t given any sobriety tests at the scene as he needed to be transported for medical treatment. Armstrong testified that in the emergency room Compton continued to have repetitive and slurred speech and also exhibited “various bouts of aggression” toward the medical personnel.
“Repeatedly, he would make the statement, ‘I killed my cousin. I killed my cousin,’” Armstrong said.
Later that evening, Compton was flown to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital for additional treatment.
After the end of Armstrong’s testimony, Harrell called three witnesses who were involved in Compton’s medical treatment on the night of the accident. Dr. David Burrows, a forensic toxicologist with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, also testified as the prosecution’s fifth witness.
The medical personnel were questioned on the definition of the term “ETOH,” which was noted on Compton’s hospital records.
Dr. Linda Frasca, who treated Compton at WCCH, said the notation referred to a “general term we use for alcohol.” Ellen Prater, a registered nurse at WCCH, said the term describes “the drinking type of alcohol.”
Reading from her notes taken on the night of the accident, Prater said that Compton did “smell of alcohol.”
Frasca and Prater said Compton was treated for a head injury, with Prater adding that he had bruising over his left eye and dried blood on his legs, hands and arms.
In cross-examination, Parks got the witnesses to testify that the slurred speech Compton exhibited was consistent with actions displayed by other head injury victims.
“I guess with a head injury, yes they could have slurred speech,” said Sharon Reece, a technician at the Roanoke hospital.
Three sets of documents were also entered into the court record as evidence. Bolt accepted specific records from WCCH, Compton’s complete Roanoke hospital records and a document showing Compton’s prior DWI conviction.
The Roanoke hospital records show that Compton received a blood test that determined his blood alcohol level to be 0.15. The legal limit in Virginia is 0.08.
Although the prosecution wasn’t submitting the blood alcohol test as a formal certificate of analysis, which requires that the test be done within three hours of the incident, Parks argued that the same standards should still apply.
“The state makes the three-hour limit for a reason,” Parks said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.
At the end of the hearing, Parks made a motion to strike the DWI charge, saying that no clear timeline of the arrest or the blood alcohol test had been established and that Compton’s slurred speech and other odd actions reasonably could have been caused by his head injury.
“We don’t deny that there was alcohol in his system,” Parks said in making his motion. “We have other extraordinary events that should cast doubt in the court’s mind.”
But following a short recess to review the documents, Bolt denied Parks’ motion and returned the two guilty rulings on the misdemeanors and sent the felony charge to a grand jury.
“I thought it was a valid motion and I thought we had a good argument,” Parks said after the hearing, adding that he couldn’t say why the motion was denied as Bolt provided no explanation for his decision.
If convicted of the felony charge, Compton could face a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 1-800-655-1406 or .