Trial will center on who was driving
MANATEE COUNTY -- Jabe Ira Carney was returning to a drug rehabilitation program when the vehicle he was riding in crashed, throwing him and two friends. One man was killed.
Carney, 23, was arrested in April on a DUI manslaughter charge in the death of Jason Michael Gibson, 26, who had met Carney at the Bridges of America drug rehabilitation center in St. Petersburg.
But was Carney really driving that afternoon on Feb. 5?
That question could become the focus in the criminal case against the Bradenton man, who is scheduled to stand trial next month. Carney faces a potential 15-year prison term if convicted.
Central to the state's position are two items: the statement of a survivor that puts Carney behind the wheel and a gas station surveillance video that reportedly shows Carney getting into the driver's seat after buying a 12-pack of beer.
State prosecutor Bruce Lee said the video corroborates what Angela Marie Doak, 24, the other survivor, told Florida Highway Patrol investigators after the fatal wreck.
But the video was recorded hours before the crash, and showing it to jurors could taint the panel, Carney's attorney, Anthony Ryan, said at a court hearing Wednesday in Bradenton.
"Who's driving earlier in the day is never going to be relevant to who's driving at the time of the crash," Ryan said.
But Lee said the events that happened in the hours before the crash are pertinent. Circuit Judge Janette Dunnigan agreed, saying the video could be played at trial. She denied Ryan's effort to keep it out.
FHP investigators took about two months collecting evidence and reconstructing the Super Bowl Sunday crash before Carney was arrested.
Doak told troopers that she borrowed the Jeep from Carney's mother and drove to St. Petersburg to pick up Carney and Gibson.
She said the three friends bought Bud Light and later drank at Three Oaks Bar & Grill and Woody's River Roo in Ellenton. Doak told investigators that Carney was driving.
Authorities say Carney was on Interstate 275, heading to St. Petersburg, when he swerved to avoid a vehicle that had slowed for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge toll booth.
Carney, according to FHP reports, was speeding and lost control of the vehicle, which flipped six times.
"I really messed up this time," Carney, injured in the crash, reportedly told FHP troopers at the hospital.
But jurors won't be allowed to hear that statement because state troopers got it before Carney was read his rights.
Authorities said Carney's blood-alcohol level was 0.111 percent -- above the .08 limit at which Florida motorists are considered impaired.
Investigators found an empty 12-pack cardboard box of Bud Light beer scattered with the plastic, glass and metal crash debris.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Trial will center on who was driving
