Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990 TAG: 9004250453
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But prosecutors want the jury to believe a different version - that blood alcohol tests showed Barber, 41, was too drunk to drive the day his speeding sports car slammed into an oncoming car on Ogden Road Southwest.
The crash killed William L. Martin, a 79-year-old prominent Roanoke lawyer.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations this morning as Barber's involuntary manslaughter trial enters a third day in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Witnesses testified that Barber's swerving car was going as fast as 70 mph when it struck Martin's car, sailed 80 feet through the air and landed on an embankment.
Testimony has pitted Barber's account, bolstered by several witness who said he did not appear intoxicated shortly before and after the accident, against blood tests that show he was.
A test taken at Community Hospital shortly after the accident showed that Barber had a blood-alcohol content of .15 percent - well over the legal limit of .10 percent at which someone is considered too drunk to drive.
Barber disputed those tests in testimony Tuesday, insisting that he had had only one drink several hours before the accident.
But he admitted that he was on the wrong side of the road and sliding sideways out of control when he struck a car in which Martin was a passenger the afternoon of March 18, 1989.
"I felt like the whole world had caved in" after hearing that Martin was killed, Barber said. "I thought of myself as someone who saves lives instead of someone who could be responsible for an accident."
Barber said he could remember nothing about the accident at first. But after visiting the scene almost daily, he said, he was able to piece together what happened.
After running slightly off the right side of the road, Barber said, he veered into the left lane of the undivided road. Barber said he struck a pothole, causing him to accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes.
His car was sliding sideways down the wrong lane when he struck Martin's car, which was headed in the opposite direction. Martin was pronounced dead at the scene.
In cross-examination, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom questioned why Barber repeatedly visited the scene of the accident to "piece together" what had happened.
"Is that what you remember, or is that what you have decided is the best story?" Branscom asked of Barber's account.
Barber, who has a master's degree in social services, also had worked as a drug and alcohol counselor before taking his current job with the Veterans Administration.
Martin, a senior partner with Martin, Hopkins, Lemon and Carter, had been active with the firm until his death. He taught law classes at Washington and Lee University, had been president of the Roanoke Bar Association and once ran unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates.
He was on his way to a dinner with friends when the accident happened.
by CNB