VAN BUREN -- A Crawford County jury took 40 minutes Tuesday to acquit a Van Buren man of manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in 2014.
The prosecuting attorney's office said Jeremy House, 34, was driving drunk and caused a rollover accident in rural Crawford County on Aug. 28, 2014, that ejected and killed Brian Sizemore, 34, of Alma. Prosecutors said House then left the scene of the accident and lied about his part in it.
But during the one-day trial before a jury of seven men and five women, Justin Walker testified he was positive that Sizemore was driving the 2006 Jeep when he and House drove away from the shop at 11701 Barcelona Road where they visited Walker as he worked on his car just before the accident.
The state provided no evidence to refute Walker's testimony.
"I'm glad the truth came out and the jury saw that I was innocent," House said, surrounded by happy, tearful relatives.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Shane Griffin argued to jurors that the presence of House's blood on the driver side of the Jeep showed that he was the driver. Investigators also found House's cellphone at the scene of the wreck.
Griffin said cuts and bruises on House's chin, hands, ribs and knees also were on his left side, which is the side where he would have received those if he were driving the Jeep.
Griffin argued that House gave multiple explanations for his injuries, telling one deputy he fell down on a gravel road while drunk and telling another that he hurt himself jumping off a rock while swimming in Lee Creek.
Public defender Ryan Norris told jurors that state witnesses contradicted one another about where the accident occurred and that Sizemore's body never was sent to the state Crime Laboratory for autopsy or to determine the amount of alcohol in his blood.
He also said the sheriff's office treated Sizemore's death as a drunken driving accident until nearly a year later when DNA testing was completed.
State Desk on 01/13/2016