Jury not allowed to see Helm’s phone, judge rules

A judge’s ruling Wednesday kept jurors from seeing the cell phone prosecutors say Clifford Helm used just before the head-on 2005 crash north of Spokane that killed five children and seriously injured their father.

A lawyer for Helm said none of the 400-plus photos taken by the Washington State Patrol during its 11-month investigation of the collision that killed Jeffrey and Carolyn Schrock’s children show the cell phone in Helm’s truck.

On Tuesday, WSP Detective Sergeant Ken Wade told the Spokane County Superior Court jury in Helm’s vehicular homicide trial that he found the cell phone in Helm’s truck the night of the accident. He said that it was on the floorboard on the driver’s side “in the open position” and that he left it in the truck, which was towed to a WSP impound lot.

Wade said he found the presence of an open cell phone odd but didn’t initially consider it an important piece of evidence.

Continuing his testimony Wednesday, Wade said he placed Helm’s cell phone in an evidence bag Nov. 9, 2005, a week after the collision. The evidence bag was brought to the courtroom and shown to the jury this week, but Superior Court Judge Michael Price’s ruling barred Wade from taking out the phone and showing it to jurors.

On cross-examination, Carl Oreskovich, Helm’s attorney, asked Wade whether he agreed that none of the hundreds of WSP photos taken at the accident scene or during the subsequent investigation showed the phone in Helm’s truck.

“In the pictures I’ve seen, no,” Wade replied. And, he said, there is no record of a cell phone in the WSP log Wade prepared Nov. 1, 2005, the night of the accident.

Deputy Prosecutor Clint Francis asked whether Wade would have considered it a “rush to judgment” to have focused on Helm’s cell phone on the night of the crash.

“Yes,” Wade said.

WSP Detective Ryan Spangler, lead detective for the state’s case, also testified Wednesday about his response to the grisly accident. Spangler set up the Total Station, an instrument that sends out light pulses to measure the accident scene.

Frame by frame, photos taken by WSP investigators showed Helm’s trajectory into the path of the truck containing the five Schrock children, ranging in age from 2 to 12.

Spangler measured the 1,500-foot path of tire tracks where Helm left the northbound lanes of Highway 395, crossed the median into oncoming southbound traffic, veered back into the median and then re-entered the southbound lanes, colliding with the Schrocks.

The tire tracks show “steering input” from the driver – an effort to control the truck – Spangler said. That would contradict the defense’s contention that Helm fainted and the truck simply went out of control.

Without that “steering input,” Helm’s truck would have continued straight and re-entered the northbound lanes instead of veering a second time into oncoming traffic, Spangler said.

Under cross-examination, Spangler said he ruled out alcohol, medication or excessive speed as reasons for the accident. He said both trucks were traveling about 60 mph when they collided.