Witness: Driver smoked pot all day before fatal crash

Bobby Joe Abernathy had been smoking marijuana off and on all day before the box truck he was driving crossed the centerline and caused a head-on collision that killed a Glenallen, Mo., teenager this spring, an eyewitness testified Friday.

Amelia Fisher, 17, died of spinal shock and a cervical fracture -- "basically a broken neck" -- as a result of the April 5 crash on Highway 34 near Burfordville, Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton testified at a preliminary hearing Friday morning.

Abernathy, 34, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree assault in connection with the crash.

The crash injured Abernathy; his passenger, Eric Smith; and Erin Cordell, the driver of the sport utility vehicle in which Fisher was riding.

During the hearing, Smith testified he feared for his safety after watching Abernathy smoke marijuana from a glass pipe several times throughout the day, but he hesitated to report the driver's behavior to their supervisors at Slumberland Furniture because it was his first day on the job.

"I was going to wait until I got back and tell them," he said.

Abernathy seemed to be high at the time of the crash, Smith told assistant prosecuting attorney Jack Koester.

Smith said he offered to drive at one point but got no response from Abernathy, who later told him he would get to drive once he got the proper licensing.

Abernathy's attorney, Stephen Wilson, asked Smith why he didn't call his supervisors to report Abernathy's condition.

"Until that day, I was out of work for three months, so I really needed the money. I really needed the job," Smith replied.

Witnesses to the crash said Abernathy was driving erratically before the accident.

"He wasn't speeding. He was just all over the road," said Richard Cureton, who was behind Abernathy for several miles before the crash.

Cureton said after the crash, Abernathy told him he was having trouble with the box truck.

"He told me his truck was a-swerving, there was something wrong with his truck, and I told him he had plenty of time to pull over ... if the truck was driving that bad," Cureton testified.

Witness Kia Cook, a nurse and a distant cousin of Abernathy's, said she was behind Cureton on the road and saw the truck weaving near the junction of highways 34 and 72.

"It progressively got worse over the next few miles, ... crossing the centerline, a little bit at first, but then more noticeably, almost taking up the whole other lane," Cook testified.

After the crash, Abernathy's behavior led her to suspect he was under the influence of drugs, Cook said.

"He was crawling around on the ground frantically. ... I told him he needed to lay down and be still. I didn't know if he had injuries," she said. " ... I thought he was trying to vomit because of the noise he was making and body convulsions."

Abernathy was mumbling incoherently and seemed overly concerned about making a phone call, Cook said.

"He seemed very confused, disorientated, panicked, worried. ... In my experience, I have seen people on drugs that were very confused and disorientated. They were not in their right mind," she said. "He was very worried about making phone calls, and I told him that was not something to be worried about."

She said Abernathy's behavior contrasted sharply with that of Cordell, who was pinned in her SUV but was alert and able to give Cook her mother's phone number.

Cordell said her memories of the accident are spotty, but she remembers Fisher pointing out the truck about the same time she saw it.

"She pointed and said, 'What is he doing?'"

Cordell estimated the truck was "half a football field" away when she rounded the curve and saw it.

"I remember thinking I was going to go to the left, but before I could go to the left, he hit me," she said.

After hearing testimony from Sgt. Brad Lively of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who collected blood and urine samples from Abernathy, Kamp bound the case over for arraignment at 9 a.m. Oct. 21.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Highway 34 and Route U, Burfordville, MO