Cameron Bean
After a six-hour hearing on Wednesday, Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz said he wanted to review some of the proof and was delaying setting a sentence until March 3 for the woman who struck and killed runner Cameron Bean.
It appears Valerie Bray will get a two-year sentence, with prosecutor Lance Pope saying he is not asking that she be sent to the state penitentiary. He asked that she get split-confinement, including serving some time at the workhouse and some on probation.
Prosecutor Pope said the state prison should be reserved for violent offenders and repeat criminals "neither of which Ms. Bray is."
Attorney Gerald Webb asked for straight probation, saying Ms. Bray is a good person who is grief-stricken about the Sept. 19, 2015 incident. The former Baylor School runner was struck from behind by the Bray vehicle as he was running toward Moccasin Bend Hospital, where she worked.
Attorney Webb recommended that part of her punishment be to go around making speeches stressing the importance of careful driving.
Ms. Bray gave an emotional elocution (in which cross-examination is not allowed) in which she said she did stop after the collision. She said she got out, walked around her car, and did not see a deer, which she said she thought she struck.
She drove on to the hospital where she told a traffic investigator that she hit a deer.
She told Steve and Lisa Bean, "I want you to know how sorry I am for the tragic accident that took your son away. He was a young man who had so much in front of him."
Ms. Bray, who earlier pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident, declared, "There is no way I would leave somebody on the side of the road."
She said, "I am so saddened. My life just ended too. I lost my job. I lost my house. I lost everything I had."
She asked the judge "for a second chance to make a difference in peoples' lives."
Ms. Bray said when she was told at the hospital "that I didn't hit a deer - I hit a human" that "I just completely lost my mind."
Since then, she said, "my life has been a nightmare. I am ashamed and embarrassed to go out in public."
Traffic investigator Brian Blumenberg said from the evidence at the scene that Ms. Bray drove across the center line and on to the shoulder of the northbound lane. He said she traveled 571 feet along the shoulder before going back into the proper lane. She had gone out to a Mexican restaurant on Dayton Boulevard to get supper.
The witness said he found tire tracks and he also discovered a running shoe and a pair of sunglasses.
He said at the point of impact there was a scuff mark in the roadway where the runner had twisted in the roadway.
At the mental hospital, he said the Bray vehicle was heavily damaged. There was a large dent at the front where Mr. Bean had been struck, and the windshield on the driver's side was crushed in. There were marks where the runner's elbows had struck the vehicle.
He said there was a shoe print on the front bumper.
Mr. Bean was thrown up and over the vehicle.
Investigator Blumenberg said Ms. Bray stated that she swerved to miss a deer. She said, "All I seen was a deer."
Under questioning, he acknowledged that he did not give Ms. Bray any field sobriety tests and did not check her to see if she was on drugs or alcohol.
The former five-year member of the DUI Task Force, who has since gone back on patrol, said at the time he was unaware of the seriousness of the case. He said in such instances "we usually give the driver the benefit of the doubt."
From talking to her two hours after the incident, he said he saw no signs of impairment.
The witness said the "black box" on the Bray vehicle did not yield any information - apparently because the air bags did not deploy and she did not speed up or slow down during the incident.
He estimated that her speed was between 45 and 60 mph along the 45 mph posted road.
He said a check of her cell phone records did not indicate that she was on the phone at the time of the wreck.
The couple who discovered Mr. Bean lying along the shoulder of the road also testified.
Ben Friberg said he and Kimberly Sutton (now Friberg) were riding their bicycles headed for the toe of Moccasin Bend. He said he was riding with his face down, while Ms. Sutton was looking around more.
He said he passed the body of the runner without noticing, but Ms. Sutton spotted a tennis shoe in the road, then saw Mr. Bean. He said she called for him to come back.
Mr. Friberg said Mr. Bean was lying on his side breathing heavily. He said he had been knocked unconscious and was not responsive.
They waited with him until police and an ambulance arrived.
He said Ms. Sutton was able to figure out that the runner might have some connection with the Fast Breaking store for runners and to help notify his family that he was at the hospital.
He said, "We were really hoping that we had helped save his life."
Mr. Friberg said they rode on down to where the Bray vehicle was located and he told her, "You knew that was not a deer you hit."
He also said there was no sun in their eyes as they made the bike ride around 6:30 p.m. Ms. Bray at one point said she went off the road when she was blinded by the sun.
Steve and Lisa Bean gave emotional testimony about the loss of their son. Ms. Bean said, "He loved people and they loved him." She said he had a dream of becoming a top runner and went to Boone, N.C., to train while giving up a dental career. She said he had recently moved back to Chattanooga prior to the wreck that claimed his life.
Ms. Bean said of the loss, "Unless you have been there, you don't have a clue."
She said she wished that Ms. Bray could have stopped and talked to him that day, saying he would have turned the conversation to being about her.
She said, "He was such a good person. He left so many people better for meeting him."
Steve Bean told of watching the first Ironman in Chattanooga with his sons and of vowing to compete in it. He said Cameron agreed to be his trainer.
Steve Bean completed the Ironman after the death of his son.
Family members, friends and co-workers of Ms. Bray told of how she was a caregiver to her 89-year-old mother and others.
A brother and sister from Connecticut flew down to testify for her. They said she was the family housekeeper and became "like a member of the family."
Rachel Tolliver, her supervisor at Moccasin Bend, said, "She wouldn't hurt nobody" and said she was cheerful on the job and "had a way with the patients."
A number of witnesses said Ms. Bray was truly remorseful and often cried over that fateful day.
Valerie Bray