Son faces trial in dad's Bristol Twp. bludgeoning death

Posted: Wednesday, June 4, 2014 

Bristol Township police Officer Kurt Leacock said he received a strange reply from Jazs Bronner when he asked if Bronner saw his 73-year-old father fall in his Winder Drive home the day he died.

“I guess you’re going to arrest me,” Bronner answered, according to Leacock, who testified during a preliminary hearing Wednesday in the case of the 44-year-old Bristol Township man who is accused of killing Orlando Bronner Sr. with a 10-pound weight March 31.

When Leacock asked Bronner the question again, Bronner launched into a story about how he and his father got into an argument that morning after the older Bronner taunted his son by asking if he was a “tough guy,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

Jazs Bronner 

Bronner claimed his father threw a punch at him, but missed, the officer said. The son responded with a punch that he thought hit his father, Leacock said. The two men ended up in a “bear hug” and fell to the bedroom floor; the younger Bronner got up, but his father did not move, according to police and court records.

Leacock testified that he noticed that the knuckles on Bronner's right hand were bloodied.

Bristol Township police Officer Thomas Van Winkle testified that when he arrived at the home, he found Orlando Bronner unconscious, unresponsive and bleeding from the head. 

While Van Winkle initially responded to the home for a medical call, he testified that he suspected what he found was no accident. A blood-stained, gold dumbbell was found near Bronner’s body.

The coroner's report concluded the elder Bronner died of four blows to the head with a blunt instrument. The report also noted metal or metallic paint flakes embedded in his skull.

Lead investigator Detective Douglas Slemmer testified that Bronner claimed he saw the blood when he lifted his father’s head and discovered he landed on a dumbbell weight, which he moved away from his father’s body.

Bronner didn't call 911 or give his father any medical assistance, though he's a Navy veteran trained as a field medic, Slemmer said. Instead, he dug through his father’s pants pockets for house keys, the detective testified.

When he found them, Bronner left the house and drove to his mother’s Trenton home, police said. Later that day, Bronner and his mother, Annie, returned to the house and Annie Bronner called police, the detective said.

Bronner later claimed he didn’t provide medical assistance because he “panicked,” the detective said.

Following testimony, Bristol Township District Judge Joanne Kline held Bronner for trial on charges of homicide and possession of an instrument of crime. He remains in Bucks County prison without bail.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Falls aunt upset driver who hit nephew waived hearing

Posted: Thursday, June 5, 2014 

Kelli Donlen has been mentally bracing herself to face the man who struck and killed her 15-year-old nephew.

She even arranged to bring a small army of family and friends who wanted to hear what Brian Patterson and his attorney had to say in court about the accident that ripped apart her heart.

Zachary Gonzalez on his 15th birthday

But the Falls woman found out Thursday that she won’t get to face the 60-year-old Bristol man next week as expected. Instead, she’ll have to wait until his trial in Bucks County Court in Doylestown.

Patterson filed paperwork to waive his right to a preliminary hearing, sending his case directly to trial. Typically, defendants appear before a district court judge to waive their preliminary hearing, but they can opt to waive ahead of time and avoid a court appearance, according to the DA’s office.

The news was upsetting for Donlen, the aunt and guardian of Zachary Gonzalez, who was killed Jan. 19 after Patterson struck him and a friend while allegedly driving under the influence of prescription and illegal drugs. The boys and a third friend had been riding bikes along four-lane Route 13 highway.

“I had 10 to 12 people coming so he can see what he had taken from us,” said Donlen, who raised Zachary with her husband since he was 9 years old. “I don’t understand this, how do criminals get better treatment than victims?”

Patterson is charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. If convicted of DUI, he faces a mandatory three days in jail and up to a year for each of the drug charges.

Patterson doesn’t face criminal charges in the death of Zachary or for injuring Zachary’s friend Jeffrey Garvie, 14, of Falls, after the district attorney’s office said an “extensive” accident reconstruction found “no chargeable violations (were) found in relation to crash causation,” according to court documents.

The three teens were riding bikes along southbound Route 13 in a construction zone around 4:30 p.m. when Zachary and Jeffrey were struck by Patterson’s Volkswagen just below the Mill Creek Road exit, authorities said. Zachary sustained significant head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene. Jeffrey was taken to St. Mary Medical Center where he was hospitalized for two days with multiple injuries. The third boy wasn’t injured.

The Tullytown police accident report contains few details about the accident and no witness accounts, according to a copy obtained by the Bucks County Courier Times.

Brian Patterson in his driver's license photo

A narrative portion of the report describes the accident as occurring when Zachary and Jeffrey were attempting to cross Route 13 southbound. The report also indicates that Patterson showed “no avoidance maneuver,” and that both boys were on the shoulder of the road.

No other accident investigation reports are “publicly available” at this time, according to Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Matt Hoover, who is prosecuting Patterson.

Patterson stopped his car and cooperated with police. Court documents show Patterson showed signs of impairment. He agreed to blood tests, which showed he had diazepam, nordiazepam, cocaine and benzoylecgonine in his system at the time of the accident, according to the affidavit.

Zachary, who was a freshman at Pennsbury High School, turned 15 three days before his death. At age 3, Zach’s father, Reinaldo “Ray” Gonzalez, was killed after he was struck by a drunken driver while walking down a Philadelphia street. His mother, Donlen’s sister-in-law, died of leukemia when Zach was 9.

On Thursday, Donlen said she believed that Patterson may have waived his hearing to avoid facing her and other family members, who have vowed to attend every court proceeding.

“Is he trying to avoid what he’s done to this family? He needs to see what he did to us,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Zach paid the ultimate price, and he is going to get three days? I live by the law. I do the right things. How do they get away with this?”

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Bensalem man will be tried on homicide & assisted suicide charges in mom's death

Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A 30-year-old Bensalem man will face trial on charges of homicide and assisted suicide in the death of his 59-year-mother, though his defense attorney believes seven handwritten notes found in the home suggest her death resulted from a mother-son suicide pact.

Following an emotional, two-hour preliminary hearing Wednesday, Bensalem District Judge Joseph Falcone held Koustantinos “Gus” Yiambilis for trial in Bucks County on all charges including an open homicide charge and a newly added — and rarely used — one: causing or aiding in suicide. He is being held without bail at Bucks County prison.

Yiambilis’ defense attorney, William Goldman Jr., expressed disappointment that the homicide charge was held.

Suicide notes written by Gus and Karen Yiambilis

“This is not a homicide,” Goldman said. “It was a double attempted suicide. He survived. She didn’t.”

Prosecution witnesses included Bensalem police officers and fire officials who responded to Longmeadow apartments on April 7, when Karen Yiambilis was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning, a result of a gas generator running in the family’s apartment.

In a rare legal move, Goldman called two witnesses including neighbor Karen Linsalata, who testified Karen Yiambilis asked her twice to borrow her gas generator the day she died. In court documents, Bensalem police allege Linsalta told them that Gus Yiambilis borrowed her generator.

Several Bensalem police officers testified about responding to the Bristol Road complex after receiving reports of a possible hazardous condition and the smell of fumes in apartment No. 117, where Gus and Karen Yiambilis lived.

According to testimony, firefighters and police officers pounded on doors and windows for at least several minutes around 11:30 p.m. When Gus Yiambilis finally answered the door, he appeared disoriented. They noticed a haze throughout the dark apartment and the strong smell of exhaust fumes.

Yiambilis allegedly told police his mom was asleep in the bedroom where officers found the gas generator, though it was unclear Wednesday if it was running at the time. Yiambilis told police he was using the generator because PECO has shut off power to the house, and that he re-filled the generator with gas around 9 p.m. then fell asleep, according to testimony.

Gus Yiambilis

Karen Yiambilis was pronounced dead at the scene; an autopsy found she died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Bensalem fire investigator Robert Sponheimer testified that carbon monoxide readings in two of the four neighboring apartments at potentially dangerous levels. Residents of four apartments were evacuated for two hours until the fumes dissipated.

Bensalem police officer Matthew Tobie testified that Yiambilis — who was also hospitalized and treated for carbon monoxide poisoning — started crying when he was placed in handcuffs at the hospital and blurted out, “I can’t believe I killed my mother. She’s the only thing I got.”

Detective Gregory Jackson, who was responsible for processing the crime scene, testified that he found evidence that doors and windows in the bedroom where Karen Yiambilis and the generator were found had been sealed off with packing and duct tape.

He also testified he found five suicide notes — four on a dresser in the bedroom and the fifth on a nightstand. The notes — allegedly written by Karen and Gus — were addressed to two other Yiambilis children, a son and daughter.

In the notes to her children, Karen Yiambilis requested that her hair be donated to the charity “Locks of Love,” and “I love you. Please understand why we left this world. Gus and I were very unhappy.” In a note to her son, Karen Yiambilis wrote: “Gus and I are leaving. It’s too much pain here.”

Gus and Karen Yiambilis

Only one note was not written to anyone: “The negativity in this world is too much for us to deal with, we are sorry but we wish to not deal with it anymore. We are going home to God.”

After her death, neighbors said that Yiambilis and her son had fallen on hard financial times recently. Karen had lost her job a couple months earlier and Gus had lost his job days before Karen’s death, they said.

On cross examination, Jackson testified that he didn’t attempt to find out who wrote the notes or the names on the envelopes.

Both Jackson and Detective Jack Gohl also testified they were aware that two more suicide notes were found after police released the crime scene to the family. The notes were found on the floor near the dresser where other notes were found. The additional notes were immediately turned over to police.

One of the notes was allegedly written by Karen, the other by Gus, according to testimony. They were both addressed to Yiambilis’ husband and Gus’ father.

When Goldman questioned Gohl how investigators could have missed the notes, the detective replied that the crime scene was a “cluttered, unstable area.”

The newspaper obtained copies of the seven notes.

Goldman also put Nick Yiambilis on the witness stand where he testified that he recognized the handwriting on the suicide notes as either his mother’s or his brother’s, and that Karen’s handwriting was on the envelopes.

On cross examination by Assistant District Attorney A.J. Garabedian, though, Nick Yiambilis admitted he did not respond to police interview requests involving the case.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Not every DUI death results in homicide charges

Posted: Sunday, June 1, 2014 

Sarah Hughes knows the difference between right, wrong and illegal.

The Falls woman understands that her son and his friends were wrong to ride their bikes in a construction zone along four-lane Route 13 one Sunday afternoon five months ago.

She also understands that it was illegal for 60-year-old Brian Patterson to be driving allegedly under the influence of prescription and illegal drugs on the same highway that same day.

What she cannot grasp is how Patterson is not being held criminally responsible for striking and seriously injuring her 14-year-old child and killing his 15-year-old friend.

Zachary Gonzalez

While the Bristol resident faces a preliminary hearing June 10 on charges of driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and a possession controlled substance in the Jan. 19 accident in Tullytown, he isn’t charged with homicide by vehicle while under the influence or even aggravated assault while DUI.

“They’re children and they made a mistake,” Hughes said. “You’re an adult and you broke the law.”

Driving while impaired is against the law, yet might not result in criminal charges against the driver when someone is injured or killed in an accident, according to several defense attorneys, including former prosecutors.

Charges of homicide by vehicle while DUI or aggravated assault while DUI require that prosecutors prove that the driver’s intoxication alone caused the accident, attorneys said.

But one anti-drunken-driving advocate countered that driver impairment alone should be enough to prosecute the more serious charge of homicide by vehicle while under the influence.

Former Bucks County prosecutor Colin Jenei, now a New Hope defense attorney, says that he made the decision not to press homicide by vehicle while DUI charges about a dozen times during his time in the DA’s office.

“It was always a difficult decision in my opinion,” he said. “They are truly tragic cases.”

One of those fatal accidents involved a woman who was driving home from a party during which she had been drinking. Her blood alcohol level was around Pennsylvania’s legal limit of .08 when she struck and killed a man whom she claimed jumped in front of her car, Jenei said.

The subsequent accident investigation found the man who was killed had a blood alcohol level three times above the legal limit. He also told friends that he was depressed and wanted to commit suicide by jumping in front of a car, Jenei said. The man was hiding in a bush and leaped into the road as the woman drove past, he said.

“To have charged that lady with homicide would be entirely incorrect,” Jenei said, adding that she was charged with DUI.

THE FAULT FACTOR

Bucks County defense attorney Richard Fink recalled a decade-old case in which a lawyer was charged with homicide by vehicle while DUI after he was involved in an accident that killed another lawyer in his firm who was a passenger in his car. The accused man was intoxicated and speeding when the fatal accident happened.

A jury found the lawyer not guilty of homicide by vehicle while DUI, but guilty of homicide by vehicle. The jury decided that the driver’s speed — not his intoxication — was responsible for the death, Fink said.

“You can be drunk driving your car, and there can be a death that is not attributed to you being drunk,” Fink added. “My experience, the family is never going to believe the drunk driver wasn’t at fault.”

The requirement that prosecutors prove that a driver’s impairment resulted in a fatal or serious accident stems from a fatal DUI case 20 years ago in Philadelphia, Jenei said.

The case involved a man who double-parked on a one-way street and ran into a store. While the man’s wife waited for him in the front passenger seat, another driver, who was three times above the legal limit for driving and was speeding the wrong way down the street, hit the car and killed the wife.

While the husband’s actions — double parking — were clearly illegal, the court determined the other driver’s intoxication was directly and substantially responsible for the accident, and he was charged and convicted of homicide by vehicle while DUI, Jenei said.

In the Jan. 19 Tullytown fatal accident, Zachary Gonzalez suffered significant head trauma and was pronounced dead at the scene. Hughes’ son, Jeffrey Garvie, was hospitalized for two days with a head injury, broken shoulder and a bruised lung, according to Hughes.

After striking the boys, Patterson stopped his car and cooperated with police, according to court documents. Patterson showed signs of impairment and police allegedly found an empty pill bottle that was prescribed to someone else. Patterson allegedly told police his “perc 10s” were kept in the bottle, referring to the prescription opiate painkiller Percocet.

Police executed a search warrant on his car and found “multiple pills” and five pipe-like items, according to the affidavit in the case. A lab analysis of the items found cocaine residue on the pipe and the pills tested positive for oxycodone and zolpidem, a prescription sedative. Blood test results determined that Patterson had diazepam, nordiazepam, cocaine and benzoylecgonine in his system at the time of the accident, according to the affidavit.

If convicted of driving under the influence, Patterson faces jail time of a mandatory three days or up to a year for each of the drug charges. A homicide by vehicle charge carries a mandatory three-year prison sentence.

ENOUGH EVIDENCE

Patterson’s defense attorney, Ron Elgart, said it’s his understanding that there were eyewitnesses to the accident, and a “very thorough” investigation.

“If he didn’t cause the accident, he should not be charged,” Elgart added. “(Not being charged with a homicide by vehicle while DUI) is a rarity because in a lot of the cases the person under the influence is at fault.”

Brian Patterson

The Tullytown police accident report contains few details about the accident and no witness accounts.

A narrative portion of the report describes the accident as occurring when Zachary and Jeffrey were attempting to cross Route 13 southbound and were struck by Patterson’s vehicle. The report also indicates that Patterson showed “no avoidance maneuver,” and that both boys were on the shoulder of the road.

“This accident is currently under investigation and this report will be updated as needed,” according to a copy of the report.

According to Patterson’s criminal complaint, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Homicide by Vehicle Task Force conducted an extensive reconstruction and did not find Patterson at fault for the accident, specifically citing “no chargeable violations (were) found in relation to crash causation.”

Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Matt Hoover, who is prosecuting Patterson, declined to provide any additional traffic reports involving the case. “As it is a pending prosecution no reports are publicly available at this time,” Hoover said in an email.

Zachary’s aunt and legal guardian, Kelli Donlen, said she was told by police that Patterson did not have enough time to stop before he struck Zachary and Jeffrey. But Hughes said that other drivers managed to stop before hitting the boys.

Hughes also pointed out that Patterson is charged with three counts of DUI, which she says suggests that police believe his ability to drive was hindered because he was under the influence.

“Isn’t that enough evidence,” she added.

It’s enough for Frank Harris, a government affairs representative for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“This is very unusual,” he said. “If the defendant was impaired, it should be enough to prosecute.”

But Harris added that Pennsylvania’s drunken driving laws tend to benefit defendants. He added that prosecuting someone for injuring or killing someone while driving impaired can be difficult, citing the controversial legal case last year in which a juvenile court judge sentenced a wealthy Texas teenager to probation in a drunken driving accident that killed four people and injured two others.

Harris added he doesn’t believe there is merit to the argument that a driver’s impairment may not have caused an accident.

“This is a slap in the face for victims,” he said. “You are either impaired or you aren’t. If you test positive for cocaine and other drugs, you must be impaired.”

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

No murder charge for Trenton man in 2013 Morrisville shooting

Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said it knows who killed a 23-year-old Morrisville man behind a tobacco store 14 months ago, and why.

But suspect Davon “Daivon” Sims, 22, of Trenton, won’t face homicide charges. The shooting was in self-defense, during a botched robbery attempt, according to Bucks County assistant district attorney Christopher Rees, who is prosecuting the case.

Sims is charged with felony drug delivery, possession of a controlled substance, possession of firearms prohibited and related charges.

David Cox Jr. was found dead March 4, 2013, of a single gunshot wound to his chest behind the Smokin’ Joe’s tobacco store in the 100 block of East Trenton Avenue in Morrisville. The shot was at close range, according to an autopsy. His body was found near a light gold 2000 Infinity I-30 with a New Jersey license plate, authorities said

Davon Sims 

Police executed a search warrant on the Infiniti and recovered a plastic bag containing a white substance, suspected marijuana, money and a red cell phone among other items. Lab tests confirmed the drugs were cocaine and marijuana.

Police interviewed a man who claimed he was with Cox at the time of the shooting. He alleged that the pair arranged to meet a drug dealer under the guise of buying drugs, but they really planned to rob the dealer at gunpoint, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The man claimed he saw the driver of the Infiniti — later identified as Sims — shoot Cox once, then start firing the gun at him, court documents show. The man said he ran from the scene and returned a short time later, when he saw Sims outside the Infiniti and at least two people in the car, according to records.

Detectives later learned the Infiniti had been reported stolen in Trenton shortly after Cox was shot.

Two days after the shooting, police spoke with a 21-year-old admitted crack cocaine dealer who claimed he received a text message from a person he knew as “Mookie,” who set up a drug deal at Smokin’ Joe’s. Sims was supposed to sell a quarter-pound of marijuana and they’d share the money, according to the affidavit.

Sims, the dealer, and a third man drove to Smokin’ Joe’s. When they arrived, one of the men they met there got out of a truck, pulled out a handgun and demanded the marijuana and money, according to the affidavit. At some point, Sims allegedly pulled out a gun, and the dealer claimed he heard two shots before he and the third man took off running.

Two days later, the dealer claims he spoke with Sims, who claimed the gun he used to shoot Cox was “wiped down” and “still over there,” a reference to Morrisville, the affidavit said.

Sims is serving a mandatory five-year state prison sentence in New Jersey for a 2011 robbery with bodily injury, according to online court records. He was convicted in January 2013 and sentenced in June.

The Bucks County DA is in the process of extraditing Sims to face trial on the other drug-related charges, Rees said. He did not know when he would return to Bucks.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

Probe of alleged Bucks County bomb maker continues

Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2014

A 30-year-old Bristol Township man who told police he made bombs as a hobby after they responded to an explosion in his home Monday doesn’t appear to be affiliated with any known terrorist or fringe groups, police said.

But the investigation into Thomas Piscione is continuing and nothing has been ruled out, Lt. Terry Hughes said. Additional charges could be forthcoming, he added.

Bristol Township police have released little information about Piscione since his arrest Monday on charges of risking a catastrophe and reckless endangerment, though Hughes did say Piscione doesn’t have any known military explosives training.

An Amtrak spokesman confirmed Tuesday that Piscione works as a communications and signaling maintainer for the railroad. The job involves maintaining the railway signaling system, which governs train movements.

Thomas Piscione

Police finished removing items from Piscione’s Midwood Lane home under a search warrant Tuesday, Hughes said. Among the items confiscated were more than 100 1-ounce bottles of chemicals that officials said could be used to make explosives. They include copper sulfate, sodium chloride, potassium, magnesium, sodium phosphates and potassium iodine. They also found glass beakers, tubing, and warming plates, which were arranged around workbenches placed against three walls in a back bedroom, Hughes said. 

Also confiscated: brass knuckles, an “extreme” pellet gun, a Mossburg 12-gauge shotgun, a .22-revolver, speed loaders for a .357-magnum handgun, threaded pipes and caps, ball bearings, an ammo vest with shotgun shells, various boxes of ammunition, knives, and blow darts. They also found books about making bombs and about serial killers.

Police said they found evidence that Piscione was operating a chemical bomb lab in his Levittown rancher after he detonated an explosive in his fireplace, seriously damaging the home Monday morning. He wasn’t injured in the blast and no one else was home at the time of the explosion and subsequent fire shortly after 1 a.m., police said.

Piscione initially claimed a propane tank had exploded, but fire officials on the scene found indications Piscione was experimenting with bomb-making materials, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police didn’t find any completed bombs or explosive device in the home. After a preliminary police investigation, officials determined the explosion occurred after ammonium nitrate was heated in the home’s fireplace. Piscione claimed the explosion was an accident, Hughes said.

Piscione remains in Bucks County prison in lieu of 10 percent of $1 million bail.

Steve Bartholomew, a spokesman with the Philadelphia Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed that the ATF is assisting in the Bristol Township investigation.

He said most ATF investigations don’t involve regulated or commercial explosives, but rather crude homemade devices. Federal law requires individuals who buy and sell commercial explosives to be licensed.

Some chemicals or materials that can be used to make explosives are readily available and have other uses. For example, black powder isn’t considered an explosive, but it can be used to make an explosive device, Bartholomew said.

“You can buy cardboard tubes anywhere,” he added. “PVC pipe is available in any hobby store.”

Bomb-making hobbyists aren’t as rare as people might believe, Bartholomew said.

Earlier this month, a 54-year-old Philadelphia artist blew off parts of both hands while playing with a homemade bomb, Bartholomew said. Philadelphia police have charged David Ferrin with possessing weapons of mass destruction, risking a catastrophe and related offenses; the ATF is also investigating that incident.

And last year, former Warrington resident John Grzyminski, 50, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegal possession of an unregistered explosive device. He was arrested in May 2012 after his mother and brother found what appeared to be three crude pipe bombs inside his mom’s Saddle Drive home. He later said they were fireworks.

Such crude explosives are extremely volatile and dangerous, according to Bartholomew.

“These devices are not fireworks,” he said.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

DUI-related assault charge dropped in Bensalem hit-and-run

Posted: Monday, June 2, 2014

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; 

A Bensalem district judge has dismissed an aggravated assault while DUI charge against a 26-year-old Philadelphia man, after the prosecution’s expert witnesses testified that he was not certain the man’s impairment was responsible for the hit-and-run. The accident seriously injured a 14-year-old boy.

Judge Leonard Brown on Monday held George Colbert for trial in Bucks County court on all other charges including aggravated assault by vehicle, accidents involving death or personal injury, driving under the influence, and related charges including a half-dozen traffic citations. Colbert is free after posting 10 percent of his $30,000 bail.

Prosecutor A.J. Garabedian argued that blood tests taken after the Feb. 14 accident in the 2000 block of Street Road proved that Colbert had marijuana in his system at a level that would have impaired his driving.

George Colbert

Bensalem police allege that Colbert was driving his 2004 Toyota Corolla east in the right lane of Street Road near the Bensalem Plaza shopping center when he entered the road shoulder, drove into a 5-foot high snow bank and struck a 14-year-old boy walking on the shoulder with two friends. The teen suffered a broken pelvis and collarbone and a fractured tailbone, police said.

Witness Lewis Lake testified Monday that he was driving behind Colbert’s Toyota the day of the accident and saw him weaving within his lane before he drove into the snow bank. Lake said he thought the Toyota was going to flip over, but the driver managed to regain control of the car and stop on the shoulder.

The Toyota’s driver got out and looked around his car for about two minutes, before getting back inside and driving away, Lake said.

Lake testified that he didn’t notice the Toyota had hit a person until he got closer to the accident scene.

"I saw a sneaker in the street. I thought that was odd,” he said. Then Lake saw the injured boy lying in the road.

Lake testified that he followed the Toyota as it drove east on Street Road for about a quarter mile, until it drove into a business where Lake used his three-quarter ton work pickup to block the Toyota.

Bensalem detectives Brian Oliverio and John Monaghan each testified that the accident reports did not indicate that officers at the accident scene immediately suspected that Colbert had consumed drugs or alcohol before the accidents. Both detectives testified that Colbert showed no obvious signs of impairment including difficulty walking, speaking or glassy, bloodshot eyes within about 20 minutes after the accident.

Colbert’s defense attorney, Michael Parlow, said that his client was on his way to pick up a coworker when the accident happened. He suggested the accident happened after Colbert looked down at the address his boss had given him for the coworker’s house.

After the accident, Colbert submitted to blood tests that revealed the active ingredient in marijuana in his system at the time of the accident at levels that rendered him incapable of driving safely, according to Dr. Thomas Brettell, director of the Bucks County Crime Lab.

Brettell, who is also a chemistry professor, testified that based on the amount of active ingredient in Colbert’s blood, he estimated that he had smoked marijuana roughly five hours before the blood was tested, which would have been roughly 9:50 a.m. The accident occurred shortly after 11 a.m.

“He’d be showing impairment at the time of the incident,” Brettell said, adding that it’s recommended that people who smoke marijuana not drive for eight hours afterward because of its effects on the reflexes, short term memory and reaction time.

But under cross examination, Brettell testified that he could not say with certainty if Colbert’s level of impairment was the cause of the accident, testimony that Parlow used to argue that the aggravated assault while DUI charge should be dropped.

While it is illegal to drive under the influence of any illegal drug, an aggravated assault by vehicle with DUI or homicide by vehicle while DUI charge requires the prosecution show the driver’s impairment was the primary factor for the accident, under state law.

“Where is the evidence from the Commonwealth the DUI caused the accident?” Parlow said.

Prosecutor A.J. Garabedian countered that Brettell’s testimony did confirm that based on the level of active ingredient in Colbert’s blood it could have been a cause of the accident, which is all the prosecution has to prove at the preliminary hearing level.

“He would be impaired when driving,” Garabedian added. “He said, at that time, he’d be impaired.”

But Brown had the last word. The judge pointed out that Brettell’s testimony could not say with certainty that Colbert’s impairment caused the accident.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia