Crash investigator: Victim's grocery items tell story

Spencer Remoquillo

LANCASTER – The items a 69-year-old Lancaster woman was carrying in her shopping cart the day she was hit and killed on West Fair Avenue in 2011 may have helped tell her side of the story.

On Wednesday, jurors saw pictures of the scene of the three-year-old aggravated vehicular homicide case that was scattered with crash victim Mary Rose Nutter's groceries and food containers that had exploded upon impact. Her fanny pack and pair of shoes also were on the roadway, with her body laying about 50 feet away, according to witness testimony.

"She just appeared out of nowhere," said defendant Christopher B. Bayer II, during a recorded statement with police on Oct. 15, 2011, the day of the crash.

Bayer, 32, is accused of ramming Nutter from behind, causing her shoes to fly off and groceries to land all across the pavement, with some type of dairy product splattered on the Chevrolet Suburban police testified Bayer was driving when he is accused of hitting her that night.

According to a recorded statement by police with Bayer's wife, who was riding as passenger at the time of the crash, said she felt "a jolt in the vehicle" just before Bayer said they hit something.

"When we got out of the vehicle and looked back, we saw a person laying there," his wife told police.

"We did not see her. She did not have anything on to reflect any light," she added.

Fairfield County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Darren Meade called multiple first responders to testify Wednesday morning who had cataloged evidence and reconstructed the crash, attempting to give jurors some insight as to how the crash occurred.

Ohio Highway Patrol Sgt. Frederick Cook, a crash reconstructionist, said it was the items Nutter was pushing in her grocery cart that greatly helped his investigation.

Typically in pedestrian related-crashes, Cook said there isn't much evidence to consider. But in Nutter's case, Cook said there was a lot of evidence in the "cone of debris" he looks for at crash scenes. It was this cone of evidence that he said led him to believe that Nutter had been walking westbound, with traffic, in the 900 block of West Fair Avenue.

At the crash scene, according to opening statements, Bayer originally told police that Nutter had pushed her cart in front of his vehicle, not walking alongside the curb.

Bayer's defense attorney, Shawn Dominy, argued that Nutter should not have been in the road in the first place. If she had been on the sidewalk, Dominy said none of this would have happened. The law enforcement officials who testified Wednesday agreed that it likely would not have occurred. Officers also testified that Nutter should have been walking against traffic had there not been a sidewalk available for her use.

Nutter's daughter, who testified Tuesday, explained that her mother made this trip often and commonly went to the grocery store during off hours to avoid busy times at the store. She testified mother was an avid walker who walked to keep her cholesterol down.

Bayer is accused of hitting Nutter about four blocks from a bar where he told first responders that he had consumed three beers and a shot of Jagermeister. Nutter was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:41 a.m.

Bayer is facing charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony; reckless homicide, a third-degree felony; and two counts of operating a vehicle while under the influence, first-degree misdemeanors.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Thursday morning in Judge Richard E. Berens' courtroom.


Twitter: @SpencerRoushLEG