Fear and chaos as hit-and-run crash kills woman on I-44: witnesses in Douglas' trial
In the moments before a hit-and-run driver sent Lorri Lynn Garst's SUV into a deadly tumble, terrified motorists saw a car aggressively weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds on Interstate Highway 44 in Wichita County.
It was about 6:30 p.m. Nov. 15, 2018, on the northbound stretch of I-44 before the Bacon Switch Road exit. Steven Ray Douglas of Burkburnett was erratically driving a Chevy Malibu in the winter darkness among busy traffic. Garst, 53, of Wichita Falls was somewhere ahead of him, the sole occupant of an SUV.
During Douglas' punishment trial Monday, Joshua Jackson testified he and other motorists were driving above the speed limit at about 80 mph, but Douglas was going "dramatically quicker" before he hit Garst's SUV.
Francisco Ochoa was returning to Lawton, Oklahoma, after a shopping trip in Wichita Falls with his mother, Tiffany Downs, he testified Monday. She suddenly sped up, frightening him because he didn't know why.
Then 17 years old, Ochoa told his mother, "You can't be doing that!" Then he saw the crash that killed Garst behind them.
Later when they were sitting in their car, "I apologized to my mom because she had saved my life," Ochoa testified.
Another witness, Nadia Holguin, testified she was driving through the area with her then 4-year-old son when she looked in her rearview mirror and saw a vehicle swerving from lane to lane.
"I started slowing down because it was coming too fast, and it scared me," Holguin testified.
She let Douglas pass her and then saw the crash happen in front of her. A minivan and Garst's SUV were going about the same speed side by side.
"That vehicle drove in between both of them, causing one of them to start flipping," Holguin gold the judge.
Garst was ejected and killed. Douglas drove on, in spite of the damage to the Malibu, as her SUV continued to roll.
"It was a lot of pieces breaking off of it," Holguin testified.
Ochoa testified that he and his mother followed Douglas when he took the next exit off of I-44. Downs pulled up beside Douglas and confronted him while Ochoa got his license plate number and later called 911 to provide it.
"You realize you hit that vehicle, right?" his mother said more than once to Douglas.
He seemed "not really aware of what happened," Ochoa testified. "He was kind of like, what?"
Downs drove back to the area of the accident where they saw Garst's body shrouded by a blanket, blood on the northbound side of the highway and the damage to her SUV, Ochoa testified.
"It was completely on its side," he testified. "Glass and debris were everywhere. It was terrible."
He was too stunned and traumatized to do anything other than sit in the vehicle with his mom, he told the judge. That's when he apologized to her.
Others stopped to render aid to Garst and call 911.
She had suffered an extensive head wound, and when her husband arrived and wanted to see the body, authorities steered him away from doing that, fearing he would suffer for a lifetime from the sight, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Todd Lewis testified Monday.
On Thursday, Douglas, 61, waived his right for a jury to decide his guilt or innocence and pleaded guilty to accident involving death.
At Douglas' request, his penalty for the second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison, will be determined by 89th District Judge Charles Barnard. His punishment trial began Monday afternoon and was expected to continue Tuesday morning.
Wichita County Assistant District Attorney Matt Shelton gave a very short opening statement before the judge Monday.
Defense attorney Dustin Nimz told the judge in his opening statement that he agreed that Douglas did not do the right thing, and Douglas took responsibility for that with his guilty plea. But he did not intend to hurt anyone.
"You're going to hear from him directly about how he feels about this case," Nimz said.
During Lewis' testimony, he told the judge how the DPS tracked down the damaged car, discovered with a carpet draped over the damage and a trash can pushed up next to it, at a Burkburnett home.
DPS video shown to the judge Monday captured the trooper's first encounter with Douglas in Burkburnett.
Douglas came outside the home while Lewis was examining the damaged vehicle he had discovered there.
"I was fixing to come see y'all," he said to Lewis.
He told the trooper he can't walk very well and has numerous health problems.
"I have quite a few pills I need to take, and one of them, that water pill, it gives me a blindspot," Douglas said.
The judge also watched video of Lewis' drive to take Douglas in for an interview.
Douglas talked extensively about health problems he was suffering, including an enlarged heart, a difficult bout with bladder cancer, resulting complications and trouble obtaining medical care for two months.
Douglas also discussed his medication.
"The water pills, there's something about them that messes with your vision," he told Lewis.
Douglas said that if he "beat this last one," and the cancer was gone, he might become a preacher.
"God has a plan for me," Douglas said.
Douglas was free Monday from the Wichita County Law Enforcement Center on a $5,000 bond, according to online jail records.
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Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Steven Ray Douglas punishment trial for death of Lorri Garst
