James Brumlow’s grieving family had the court date pushed back yet again in the case against Brumlow’s alleged killer. The trial that was supposed to take place in January has been pushed back to make way for another suppression hearing on March 2.
“My brother James is gone, and he has no voice and his part in this story is unfortunately over,” said his younger sister Keisha Gorbski.
”It is up to us to be his voice, and not to just be his voice, but to show the man who killed him that we’re here, that we’re still affected, and we are still going to be in the this courtroom and he’s still going to have to see us.”
In July 2018, Justin Whaley, 37, drove the wrong way on Highway 111, crashing into Mr. Brumlow’s vehicle and killing him. Whaley was allegedly drunk while driving, an allegation he denies.
While the trial was originally set for January, that date needed to be set back due to a number of factors. The first was the unavailability of a key witness, who is scheduled to be in Iraq for work during the trial. The other reason for the delay was the matter of suppression.
During September’s hearing, attorney Lee Davis argued the results of the blood draw should be dismissed. The draw was administered four hours after police arrived on scene, and he said the results had to be extrapolated because of the delay. The defense and prosecution will present witnesses in order to determine whether the results of the blood draw should be suppressed or not.
“Every time that we come here, there’s no answer, and it’s pushed back further and further,” said Ms. Gorbski, “and it’s exhausting for all of us and we’re barely making it through as is.”
Whaley told the officers he had a few drinks the night before, but denied being drunk while driving. In body cam footage shown to the court, Whaley was shown saying, “I don’t know how I ended up in the wrong lane.”
Prosecutor Chris Post said the test was not administered because the EMS on scene did not feel comfortable doing the blood draw on the former EMS, due to a possible conflict of interest.
During the hearing, an officer said he smelled alcohol on Whaley’s breath, but did not administer the breathalyzer test. The officer told the court he wished to conduct the blood draw, since it was much more reliable than a breathalyzer.
“We were hopeful that this would just push forward and move on, but now we get to wait again until March and then an as of yet unknown court date,” said Ms. Gorbski. “So there’s no resolution for us here today. So now we’re all going to go home and have holidays without my brother with us.”