MELISSA MARVIN TRIAL
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MANTEO, North Carolina (Court TV) — Both sides rested Friday in the trial of Melissa Marvin, the avid surfer accused of killing four teenagers in a drunk driving accident last April. Closing arguments were to begin later in the afternoon.

The prosecution's final witness was Michael Horner, the sole survivor of the crash in the Outer Banks resort community of Kill Devil Hills. His testimony capped three days of state testimony that Marvin, 30, a waitress, was heavily intoxicated when her car sped through a red light and struck the youths' car.

The defense's case consisted of four witnesses who interacted with Marvin before and after the accident and testified that they saw no signs of drunkenness.

Marvin faces four counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon in the April 6, 1999, crash that claimed the lives of three New Jersey girls, Megan Blong, Angela McGrady and Amanda Geiger, and their North Carolina friend, Shana Lawler. The girls and their surviving friend Horner were 17-year-old high school juniors on spring break.

Horner, who suffered a punctured lung and a ruptured spleen in the wreck, told jurors yesterday that he remembered little of the actual accident in which Marvin's SUV and the teens' small car collided at a busy intersection.

"I saw the red SUV speeding toward us, and that's the last thing I remember," said Horner, who was sitting in the front passenger side of the car.

He recalled passing in and out of consciousness while paramedics treated and transported him to the hospital. Marvin was taken to the hospital in the same ambulance, and Horner told the jury he remembered her sobbing.

"I remember someone crying hysterically about their car or their dog. I learned later that it was the dog," said Horner.

That testimony fit with several other state and defense witnesses who recalled Marvin expressing inconsolable worry about her dog while never once asking about the teens' welfare.

One defense witness, Dare County Emergency Medical Technician Julie Coble, suggested that what appeared to be a lack of compassion by Marvin may really have been the symptoms of shock.

"A lot of times when something happens, it's like your brain shuts down and you focus on one thing because you're not ready to deal with it yet. She was focusing on her dog," Coble said.

Coble, who helped treat Marvin at the accident scene, and Mary Hall, who lived near the intersection and tried to comfort Marvin in the moments after the crash, testified that the defendant did not appear drunk.

The EMT said Marvin's breath did not smell of alcohol and she spoke clearly. On cross examination by the prosecution, however, Coble admitted her contact with Marvin was limited in the hectic minutes after the accident. Horner's health was her primary concern, Coble said, and she never had the chance to observe Marvin walking or sitting up, only lying down on a stretcher.

Hall told jurors she sat inches away from Marvin and carried on a 20 minute conversation with her, but never detected any odor of alcohol. She, too, said Marvin was shaken but coherent and did "nothing that made me think that she'd been drinking."

Prosecutor Robert Trivette pressed Hall on other aspects of Marvin's behavior.

"Did Miss Marvin ever cry?" asked Trivette. "No," said Hall. "Did she ever ask about the other victims, the people in the other car?" "No," said Hall. She added later, "I don't ever think she ever looked over (at the teens)."

Two friends of Marvin's testified they had seen her around noon and at that time, she was not drunk and did not smell of alcohol.

The jury also heard that Marvin received three speeding tickets in the past decade.

If convicted, Marvin faces 17 years in jail for each murder charge, and three years for the assault charge.

—Harriet Ryan