Memory an issue in deadly crash

WHITEVILLE | The last thing Jose Jesus Garcia Lopez recalls about Dec. 19, 2004, was sitting in the passenger seat of his Jeep Cherokee with his brother Victor at the wheel.

Lopez exhibited a spotty memory during defense testimony Thursday at his Columbus County Superior Court murder trial concerning events the day Natalie Housand died after her car was struck by the Jeep on N.C. 904.

The seven-woman, five-man jury will get the case today.

Defense lawyer Scott C. Dorman said earlier in the trial that Lopez was not the driver, but his client's memory was clouded by excessive alcohol intake. Lopez's testimony also suggested that head injuries from the crash may have affected his ability to remember events that day.

Lopez, 34, lived in Nakina at the time and worked as a landscaper. The native of Mexico said he has been in the United States for 14 years, but answered questions in Spanish and had a court interpreter at his side to translate.

"I remember a little bit. I was working at the house on an old truck that belonged to me," Lopez testified. "I was working at the house and I was drinking."

Lopez said he could not remember how much beer he drank or any details about the wreck, which happened when the Jeep tried to pass a car at a high rate of speed and struck Housand's car head-on. The Tabor City woman was 20 years old.

"I was with my brother in the truck," Lopez testified.

No other witnesses during four days of testimony placed Victor Garcia Lopez at the crash scene. Registered nurse Jeannie Bullard, who works at Columbus Regional Health Care Systems, testified a man walked into the Whiteville hospital the morning after the crash and identified himself as Victor Lopez.

"He came in and he stated he had been in a motor vehicle accident and he had abrasions and cuts," Bullard said. "When he first came in, he remembers the accident happening but was real confused as far as the details. He said he was out in the weather all night."

State troopers testified earlier this week that Jose Lopez walked away from the crash scene into some woods, emerging about 90 minutes later. He was then taken into custody. Bullard said Victor Garcia Lopez told her he was also in the woods.

Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Cashwell, Bullard said that Victor Lopez told her "he was a front seat passenger" in the vehicle involved in the wreck.

Jose Lopez testified he did not remember going into the woods, speaking with state troopers after he emerged near the crash site or being taken to the hospital to be treated for cuts and lacerations.

Eyewitnesses testified earlier this week that they saw Lopez lying on the side of the road near the Jeep immediately after the wreck. Assistant District Attorney Chris Gentry asked Lopez if he recalled telling a doctor at the hospital that he was driving the Jeep.

"I'm not denying anything. I don't remember," Lopez said.

A blood sample taken from Lopez four hours after the crash showed a blood alcohol content of 0.12 percent. A state witness Wednesday testified that Lopez' BAC at the time of the crash was 0.18 percent, more than twice the state's legal limit for driver's of 0.08 percent.

Lopez is charged with second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and felony death by vehicle.

Ken Little: 343-2389

ken.little@starnewsonline.com