Athens man acquitted on all charges stemming from death of UGA student
The man that police charged with being the driver of a speeding car that hit and killed a University of Georgia student a year ago was acquitted of all charges Friday in a jury trial in Clarke County Superior Court.
Donterris Jovan Gresham, 30, of Athens was tried on charges of first-degree vehicular homicide, hit and run, reckless driving, failing to exercise due care to a pedestrian, having an open container of alcohol, and driving without a license.
The jury deliberated approximately two hours on the charges before rendering the verdict to end the five-day trial held before Judge Lawton Stephens.
Gresham, represented by Athens attorney Kim Stephens, did not testify.
Background: Athens-Clarke police identify suspect in hit-and-run crash that killed UGA student
Western Circuit Assistant District Attorneys Kyle Thompson and Tyler Normandia each maintained that the evidence showed that Gresham was the driver who hit the victim and fled the scene before abandoning the car a couple of miles away at a housing complex off North Avenue.
The case stemmed from the Oct. 8, 2021, death of Ariana Zarse, a 20-year-old junior marketing major from Austin, Texas, who was hit at about 12:10 a.m. while crossing East Broad Street near Willow Street. Zarse was a director of social events for her sorority Pi Beta Phi and several of its members attended the trial along with Zarse’s family members.
Other news: Woman pleads guilty in vehicle death of UGA student from Toccoa
Ariana Zarse was hit by a 2008 Honda Accord
Zarse was hit by a 2008 Honda Accord that Athens-Clarke police officer Dustin Tilley testified he calculated was traveling about 49 mph in the 25 mph zone. Zarse and her friend, Wilson Wade, were crossing the roadway along a rail track adjacent to a pedestrian crosswalk when the crash occurred.
Construction workers were also in the immediate area repairing a gas line leak.
The impact tossed the young woman’s body 86 feet, where police officer Jaziah Hawkins testified he arrived and attempted CPR, but her injuries were too severe.
Gresham’s girlfriend testified in the trial that she was a passenger in the Honda driven by Gresham and that she was sick, sleepy and weak from her chemotherapy treatment that day. She said she heard a thud as they traveled along Broad Street.
“I thought he hit a bump,” she testified.
Stephens brought out testimony that the girlfriend claimed to have never seen the massive damage to the windshield or the frontend damage to the car. The lawyer also delved into the fact that the aunt of Gresham’s girlfriend called her daughter in Athens and told her to report the car stolen to police. The car was in the aunt's name.
The aunt, who lives in Covington, testified she wanted the car reported as stolen because she didn't know what happened in Athens.
Stephens made a point of his client's girlfriend’s testimony in regards to her comments to police when she told police a day later that Gresham was driving her car.
“You told them a story that kept you from being charged with vehicular homicide,” said Stephens, who attempted to bolster the defendant's defense that the state, through its evidence, had not proved that Gresham was the driver.
The girlfriend’s mother testified she received a telephone call that night at her home in Conyers from Gresham and that in the background she could hear her daughter screaming and crying. She testified that Gresham told her, “I done (expletive) up. I wrecked the car.”
In the state’s effort to show evidence of a similar crime, Oglethorpe County sheriff’s Sgt. Colt Young testified that he charged Gresham with reckless driving, DUI, felony fleeing and other charges following a wreck on Aug. 29, 2020. Gresham was clocked on radar traveling 90 mph in a 55 zone, Young testified.
Gresham remained in jail Friday on a hold placed on him by Oglethorpe County.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens man acquitted in pedestrian death of UGA student Ariana Zarse
