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February 10, 2011 in City
Mistrial declared in vehicular homicide case
Jon Strine waits in Judge Tari Eitzen’s courtroom on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011, for the jury decision in his vehicular homicide trial. The judge declared a mistrial.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
Wails from a victim’s daughter filled the courtroom just after the judge read what was presented as a unanimous acquittal. But seconds later, a juror said she didn’t agree with the verdict. Then five more said the same thing.
The bizarre series of events, which several longtime Spokane County court officials said they’d never before seen, led to a mistrial Thursday in the vehicular homicide and assault trial of a Spokane stockbroker who broadsided a motorcycle in June 2009, killing the passenger and paralyzing the driver.
A new trial for Jon A. Strine, 43, is expected to begin in March.
The victims’ family declined comment. Strine and his lawyer, premier private defense attorney Carl Oreskovich, also declined comment.
Deputy Prosecutor Mary Ann Brady said she was “so surprised by what happened.”
But, she said, “This was a very tough case…Sometimes people just can’t agree.”
The 12 jurors left without speaking to media.
“I know this has been extremely difficult for everyone,” Judge Tari Etizen said in court.
Etizen twice asked the jury foreman if she thought they could eventually reach a verdict.
“A unanimous verdict you mean?” the woman responded. “No your honor.”
All jury verdicts must be unanimous in criminal trials.
Strine contends the June 2, 2009, crash that killed 48-year-old Lorri Keller, an elementary school secretary, and paralyzed her husband, Gary Keller, 61, was a tragic accident resulting from a routine driving decision, not a criminal act.
State crime lab tests placed Strine’s blood-alcohol level at .20, but Oreskovich said the tests are notoriously unreliable. Experts for the defense said Strine’s alcohol consumption before the crash – about 4 ½ drinks in 3 ½ hours – would not have placed him over the legal limit for driving, which is .08.
Jurors watched surveillance video from Fast Eddie’s, where Strine and a waitress he’d met at Press bar were drinking before the crash. Strine drank two beers and took a sip of a shot of Crown Royal, but he didn’t appear visibly intoxicated on the video. Jurors also saw seconds-long video from Washington State Department of Transportation cameras that showed Strine’s silver Mercedes driving with the flow of traffic. But several motorists testified that Strine was driving erratically before the crash and nearly hit a curb.
Strine said he simply accelerated to pass a car to his right after realizing he was in the wrong lane of southbound Browne Street. Oreskovich told jurors his client was driving between 35 mph and 39 mph in the 30 mph zone.
Investigators placed Strine’s speed at 54 mph, but Gary Keller testified that he didn’t believe Strine was driving faster than 40 mph.
Strine testified last week that he drank two Firefly mixed drinks and a Stella Artois draft beer in about two hours at Press bar on South Grand Boulevard before driving Press waitress Jayme Venne to Fast Eddie’s bar on Spokane Falls Boulevard. Venne and her husband had applied for jobs there, and Strine offered to introduce her to the owner.
At the bar, Strine bought a bottle of Fat Tire beer for Venne and a shot of Crown Royal for a friend, then drank a glass and a half of Coors Light and “had a sip or two” of another Crown Royal shot, he testified.
He said he told a doctor he hadn’t been drinking only because he feared a police officer, who was in the room listening, was trying to pin the crash on him.
Strine wiped away tears during his testimony and cried when Oreskovich asked him if he took “any responsibility” for the crash.
“Yes,” Strine said. “Because I was there. I was driving my car. I didn’t see Gary. He didn’t see me. And I’m sorry … for the accident.”
The Kellers, who lived in Mead, were in the area the evening of the crash so Gary Keller could locate an office where he was to have a doctor’s appointment the next day.
“He was unfamiliar with the South Hill,” Oreskovich told jurors.
Keller, who is now in a wheelchair, said he’d made a wrong turn and looped around before stopping at a stop sign on Fourth. His wife pointed in the direction of their destination before they proceeded into the intersection, he said.
“We weren’t in any hurry,” Keller said.
A civil suit filed by Keller against Strine, who has at least two previous drunken driving arrests, was settled out of court.
Human trafficking suspects released 
zelda on February 10 at 4:19 p.m.
Was his attorney trying to imply that Strine was framed by LE? His blood-alcohol level was 2 1/2 times the legal limit, for pete’s sake.
Well, I guess there’s always the recourse of a civil suit. Cripes, this town never fails to disappoint on the most obvious things. This should have been an open-and-shut case.
herewegoagain on February 10 at 5:20 p.m.
Operating a motor vehicle with 0.20 alcohol level, causes the death of 1 person and paralyzes another with such action and the jury can’t reach a verdict.
Something is wrong with that picture.
oneanddone on February 10 at 6:20 p.m.
No one tells the truth anymore. There is no honor left in this country. After they put this guy in jail, go after the jury.
truck160cda on February 10 at 6:44 p.m.
Go after the jury?………hmmm lets see either you convict this guy or go to jail………….I don’t think so
misjustice on February 10 at 6:54 p.m.
Oreskovich beats the inept Prosecuting Attorney’s office, no surprise here. The defendant got the best “justice” that money can buy while the family of the deceased and maimed gets to go through another trial, more agony, and likely will see the drunk walk free.
Geez on February 10 at 7:34 p.m.
If you drink, don’t drive! It is that simple. He chose to casually drink through the evening and then drive. Bad choices result in bad consequences. I have no doubt he shouldn’t have been driving. I, too, can’t see how this could end this way.
lewis8457 on February 10 at 8:11 p.m.
Oreskovich is the one we need to get ran out on a rail. He chops the information and evidence so much it is hard for any reasonable person to make a decision, look at what he is doing to the Otto Zehm case.
If we could get him out of town it would help with our current police issues.
lewis8457 on February 10 at 8:15 p.m.
remember the fellow that crossed the center line on 395 and killed 5 kids, he drove away not quilty, it happens a lot in this town.
I think Oreskovich was his lawyer too.
PlanB on February 10 at 8:39 p.m.
At least some of the jurors listened to the evidence and had a conscience.
This is obscene.
earlink on February 11 at 6:22 a.m.
Let me preface this by saying, I don’t know either family and I ride a motorcycle. It seems that this article is the fairest I have seen to date.
The motorcycle was broad sided. This means that the driver (Keller) pulled in to traffic without making sure he had a clear lane to occupy. That is one of the basic rules of riding a motorcycle. If anyone else had struck him, as did Strine, this would have been nothing but a terrible tragedy. I am not excusing driving and drinking, but even if this guy were stone cold sober, the results would probably have been the same. Doesn’t it seem strange that the jury reached a verdict and only after the daughter runs from the room ‘wailing’ does one of the jurors decide to change their mind? And then once they go back in to deliberation, five others realize that one will not change her mind so they might as well split the jury and walk away? Seems to me that this jury did a dis-service to both families.
toliveanddieinla on February 11 at 7:00 a.m.
wow this guys smile just kills me drunken creepy scumbag with money for a lawyer and a regular broke person would be guilty if this guys walks for this second trial the whole world will know spokane is fricking joke p.s. we need to clean up this town or we will all looking over are backs to see if a drunk driver runs us over or some cop goes trigger happy on us and please spokesman post this or youll be joke 2 to the world its called freedom of speech peace out.
JayNW on February 11 at 11:36 a.m.
earl- this guy was going over 50mph. Mr Keller would have needed only half more second to be in the clear. He was 7 feet from being totally across that road. 7 feet and less than a second stood between him and a speeding car.
Had Strine been sober, and/or going the speed limit- heck even if he had been going only 35-40, he would never have hit the motorcycle.
And- it wasn’t after the daughter ran out of the courtroom- the judge inquired and foud out the jury didnt understand that they had to be unanimous on either guilty or not guilty. They thought that if they all couldn’t agree, it defaulted to not guilty.
The jury screwed up the instructions. Its not too hard to know what the word unanimous means.
earlink on February 11 at 12:55 p.m.
Jay, Again, I am not defending drinking and driving. If I correctly understood everything I read about this trial, Strine was not going over 50. Accident reconstruction using car to motorcycle formulas (not car to pedestrian as the prosecution used) placed his speed at around 35 -40 MPH. Even Keller admitted as much. Regardless, I will say this again, I am a motorcycle rider also. I would hope I would never allow 7 feet and less then a second, be the margin of error for me to pull in to traffic. Extrapolate that to 70 feet and 7 seconds (if he were truly going in excess of 50) and I would still never allow myself or my wife to be placed in that kind of jeopardy. Unless I did not see it coming because I was distracted. In which case it would be a tragic accident. I know everyone wants to ‘hang the drunk’ and it is hard to have any sympathy for the guy, and I can understand the jury being deadlocked. I can not understand them screwing up the trial. I think they just wanted to go home and found a convenient way to do it.