Post by Tomspy77 on Dec 11, 2013 13:41:23 GMT -6
Great-grandmother killed on Halloween night yelled 'Trick or treat' before being struck by SUV, officer says
MOBILE, Alabama – “Trick or treat!”
Those were likely the last words spoken by 60-year-old Juanita Wheat before she was struck in the street in front of her house on Halloween night, according to an officer’s testimony during a preliminary hearing Thursday for Celestine Perryman, who is charged with vehicular homicide.
Officer David Draime told District Court Judge George Hardesty that Wheat died of severe injuries a short time later at a local hospital, and Perryman was the driver of the SUV that hit her and carried her 90 feet on its hood after impact.
“She was trying to make her way across the street to get some Halloween candy,” Draime said.
Perryman was intoxicated at the time, he said, and a portable Breathalyzer test showed she had a blood alcohol level of .10, which is over the legal limit of .08. She also failed three field sobriety tests, he said.
Draime said Perryman told him she’d had “a couple of drinks” before going out that night.
Witnesses at the home Wheat was trying to reach told investigators that said the SUV first slowed, then accelerated to a “high rate of speed” as it neared the point of impact, Draime said.
Wheat was crossing dimly lit Summerville Street with the aid of her walker just before 8 p.m. when she was struck, he said.
Those were likely the last words spoken by 60-year-old Juanita Wheat before she was struck in the street in front of her house on Halloween night, according to an officer’s testimony during a preliminary hearing Thursday for Celestine Perryman, who is charged with vehicular homicide.
Officer David Draime told District Court Judge George Hardesty that Wheat died of severe injuries a short time later at a local hospital, and Perryman was the driver of the SUV that hit her and carried her 90 feet on its hood after impact.
“She was trying to make her way across the street to get some Halloween candy,” Draime said.
Perryman was intoxicated at the time, he said, and a portable Breathalyzer test showed she had a blood alcohol level of .10, which is over the legal limit of .08. She also failed three field sobriety tests, he said.
Draime said Perryman told him she’d had “a couple of drinks” before going out that night.
Witnesses at the home Wheat was trying to reach told investigators that said the SUV first slowed, then accelerated to a “high rate of speed” as it neared the point of impact, Draime said.
Wheat was crossing dimly lit Summerville Street with the aid of her walker just before 8 p.m. when she was struck, he said.