Twisted metal and plastic debris are strewn across the asphalt, a car battery lays on the roadway, and a truck tire rests in a grassy median a short distance from where two trucks came to a rest after one plowed into the other.

The frame of a Toyota Tacoma was crushed by the sudden impact and force of a 2004 Chevy Silverado driving into the driver's side. Opposite the trucks on the exit ramp, a red Mazda Miata sat with its entire front a mangled mess.

These were just some details jurors observed in more than 60 photographs shown in court of a November 2021 crash scene on Laurel Road when a Chevy truck plowed past an SUV causing rear damage and took off down the road failing to stop at a red light and colliding into the Mazda sports car and another truck.

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When law enforcement arrived, 52-year-old Fabio Wakizaka was pronounced dead, then 63-year-old David Crawford had a fractured wrist and the driver of the truck that collided with the others was nowhere to be found.

In the early morning hours following the crash, according to testimony and reports, law enforcement arrived at a home on Rustic Road to find who would later become their suspect, Robert Knowlton, covered in mud and blood, a large laceration on his left forearm and a cut on the bridge of his nose.

Sitting at the defendant's table, Knowlton, 49, wore a charcoal suit jacket on Wednesday with a light button-up shirt and a striped gray and white tie, conferring with his defense counsel Jerome Meisner.

Florida Highway Patrol officials filed charges alleging Knowlton was the driver and failed to stop at the red traffic light on Laurel Road while approaching the northbound Interstate 75 exit ramp and collided with the two vehicles, according to previous reporting.

Knowlton is charged with eight different counts, including leaving a scene of a crash with death, leaving a scene of a crash with bodily injury, driving while license suspended and causing death, driving while license suspended and causing bodily injury, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a crash, failure of a defendant on bail to appear and vehicular homicide.

On Friday, after 45 minutes of deliberation, a six-person jury made of three women and three men found Knowlton guilty on all counts. As the verdict was read, Knowlton bowed his head for a portion.

Assistant State Attorney Megan Leaf stated the jury clearly followed the law and came back with a just verdict. She added she was glad to be able to bring justice to Wakizaka's loved ones who never got the chance to say goodbye.

Meisner declined to comment following the conclusion of the trial as the case has not fully concluded until the sentencing hearing which has been scheduled for Feb. 28.

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Leaf during closing arguments Friday hammered on the fact that the entire incident started and ended with Knowlton and the choices he made.

He chose to drive that Chevy truck, he chose to drive knowing his license was suspended, he chose to drive after drinking, he chose to speed like a bad out of hell — speeding up and slowing down, swerving between lanes and smashing into the two vehicles, Leaf said. He chose to get out of the truck, throw his hands up, and walk across the roadway down an embankment, where he chose to hide for 10 hours, Lead added.

Witnesses who testified Tuesday, including the drivers of two of the cars involved in the two separate crashes that occurred on the evening of Nov. 11, 2021, described a dark gray, almost black, Chevy truck causing the accidents.

David Crawford, of Miami Beach, was traveling up north and pulled off at the Laurel Road exit to go to McDonald's, he said Tuesday. Crawford pulled onto the inside left turn lane in his red Mazda Miata.

When the light turned green, he shifted his gear and began moving forward. Seconds later, an explosion rang out and his car was forced into a spin.

Crawford said he jumped out of the car, now filled with smoke, worried he might have caused the crash. He approached the two other trucks, noticing two men standing beside the trucks.

One called out, “He’s gone,” while the other — Crawford described as being a lean man about 6 foot in height with shaggy blonde-brown shoulder-length hair, wearing a baseball cap and a henley t-shirt — threw his hands up as if in defeat and walked away in a northwest direction towards a group of trees.

That description, along with the direction the man walked off in, was a key part of the testimony, something the defense continually focused on in their questioning of witnesses and during closing arguments. In comparison, Meisner described Knowlton as being about 5 feet 8 inches, weighing about 220 pounds, bald, and was found wearing a red T-shirt. Meisner added in his closing arguments that it was an inconvenient truth that the prosecution wanted the jury to ignore.

Almost all day Wednesday, Corporal Matthew Sill from the Florida Highway Patrol testified about his investigation into the fatal crash, reviewing photographs from the crash scene and of the vehicles involved.

A photograph taken of Knowlton when he was already in an ambulance showed him having a white bandage wrapped around his left forearm, a cut to the bridge of his nose, scratches on his hands, and mud and blood on his face and hands. Meisner pointed out during questioning of one investigator that there was no bruising to Knowlton's chest, nor was there any bruising or cuts to his forehead or head which would be inconsistent with a driver who was in a severe accident where their body was flung forward, deforming the steering wheel and possibly hitting the windshield.

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"I remember being in a crash, I remember driving," Sill said Knowlton told him when he questioned him at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, statements which were included in the homicide investigation report, but not the affidavit for arrest.

Further, testimony from Knowlton's ex-wife indicated that only Knowlton drove the truck and that he had the habit of using two different sets of keys, including an extra single key that he would leave in the ignition after parking.

Blood droplets were found on the floorboard near the driver's door and the interior of the door, a smear of blood just above the lock, and a smudge of blood on the window. When the first photos were taken on the night of Nov. 11, the blood still looked fresh to Sill.

Another few droplets of blood were found near the glovebox on a grab-handle. No other evidence of blood was found anywhere else in the car, including the back driver's window and door. The blood was tested and matched Knowlton.

Knowlton testifies in his defense, states he has no recollection of Nov. 11

When Robert Knowlton took the stand Thursday afternoon, he was adamant he had no recollection of anything that happened on Nov. 11, 2021, and that he didn't tell Sill or a fire medic that he had been the single occupant driver in a crash.

The last thing Knowlton claims to remember were the events of Nov. 10, including replacing the back driver's side window which he had smashed days before being able to get into his truck when the keys were locked inside.

Christine Tilly corroborated Knowlton's testimony, recalling the last time she had seen her second cousin's fiancé, he was standing in the rain using a tool from the back of his dark gray Chevy truck to smash in the driver’s side passenger window because he’d locked his keys inside after dropping Tilly's fiancé off at their home on Nov. 5, 2021.

Assistant State Attorney Nick Lata pressed Tilly about who typically drove the truck, specifically if she ever saw any other of Knowlton’s employees drive the Chevy truck. She confirmed that she hadn’t seen any other employees use the truck and that she’d only seen Knowlton drive it.

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While installing the window, Knowlton said he cut his right hand on his pointer finger by the lower knuckle, and it started to bleed. He went to the driver's side and got in, dripping blood in the car as he grabbed super glue from the glovebox to seal the cut shut. When he got out, he used his right hand, still covered with some blood, to help him get down, smearing it on the driver's door.

After that, he finished the installation without cleaning up the blood, went to his son's track meet at Lido beach, and then went to dinner with his fiancé where he did have three Jameson and ginger drinks with dinner, he said.

The next memory he has is waking up, disoriented in a ditch at night near Honore Avenue and Rustic Road with a huge gash in his arm, his foot feeling funny, and his heart racing. He then walked home through cow pastures where he accidentally drank a few sips of his fiancé's wine coolers because he was dying from thirst, Knowlton said.

The jury also learned during Knowlton's testimony that he had been convicted of two felonies and was convicted twice of misdemeanors involving dishonesty.

Knowlton also contradicted his ex-wife's testimony, saying he didn't have the habit of leaving his keys in the vehicle's ignition and that his employees from the construction company he owned, which was named on the truck's title registration, would also use the truck from time-to-time using a spare key which he kept in a hide-it-box in the truck's bed. He also said that his ex-wife had driven the truck at least twice before.

Gabriela Szymanowska covers the legal system for the Herald-Tribune in partnership with Report for America. You can support her work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America. Contact Gabriela Szymanowska at gszymanowska@gannett.com, or on X: @GabrielaSzyman3.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Jury finds Nokomis man guilty for fatal 2021 hit-and-run on Laurel Road