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LEWISTOWN -- All charges against 60-year-old Stuart Wayne Bryant stemming from a January crash in Granville Township that killed a Mifflin County Junior High School teacher, including third-degree murder, were bound over for trial in the Mifflin County Court of Common Pleas at a Monday preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Jack Miller.
The lone witness called was Granville Township Police Department Chief Craig Weston, who was the crash's investigating officer.
Weston testified that he encountered the incident at approximately 6:45 p.m. Jan. 28 after noticing some "haze" off in the distance as he was leaving his patrol of the Lewistown Walmart parking lot and going to investigate. Upon arrival at the intersection of U.S. 22 Business and Hoss Drive, Weston said he encountered an unconscious Harry Aultz and Bryant, who was complaining of head, neck and chest pain as well as two very heavily damaged vehicles.
"In all my years, I've never seen that amount of damage from an incident like that in a residential area," Weston said.
Aultz later died due to what the Mifflin County Coroner's Office determined to be blunt force trauma.
Weston testified that a black Dodge Charger -- the same type of vehicle driven by Bryant -- was reported by several people driving erratically earlier that evening and that a black Dodge Charger was reported to have been involved in a hit-and-run crash at the intersection of U.S. 22 Business and Industrial Park Road just prior to the collision at Hoss Drive.
Weston said he not only reviewed security camera footage of the crash from the nearby Snappy's convenience store, but footage from cameras at Walmart, EZ Auto and Glick's Shoe Store that showed what appeared to be a black vehicle traveling east on U.S. 22 Business at a "high rate of speed."
A state police trooper who specializes in crash scene reconstruction was called to the scene of the Hoss Drive crash. Weston testified that the specialist's report stated Bryant's vehicle was shown on stored vehicle data to have been going as fast as 114 mph just seconds prior to the crash with Aultz and that Bryant was traveling approximately 94 mph when the two collided.
Weston also testified that he found a damaged whiskey bottle on the floor of the Charger and that a blood sample later drawn with Bryant's verbal consent indicated a blood-alcohol concentration of .212 percent.
After a brief cross-examination, defense attorney Kaitlyn Sherry Clarkson argued the third-degree murder charge requires "extreme recklessness" and that speed alone does not meet the statutory requirement.
In response, Miller questioned how Clarkson could consider driving 114 mph on a busy residential roadway to be anything but "extremely reckless." He then rhetorically asked her what she believes would meet that standard.
"You're giving us possibilities and I'm giving them right back at you," Miller said before giving his ruling.
Clarkson then asked Miller about a bail modification petition before being reminded that any petition regarding bail for a murder charge must be made directly to the common pleas court.
As a result, Bryant, of Coatesville, remains incarcerated at Mifflin County Correctional Facility having been denied bail.
He faces charges of third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, DUI, DUI with a blood alcohol content of at least .16, exceeding the 35 mph speed limit by 78 mph in an urban area, five counts of recklessly endangering another person, two counts of leaving the scene of an accident, two counts of reckless driving and several other summary traffic offenses.