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Jury: No decision on fate of driver

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Jurors were set to return this morning to continue deliberating over whether to convict a Belle Vernon man on charges stemming from a fatal 2015 collision in Somerset Township.

The jurors began deliberating in mid-afternoon Tuesday, following testimony earlier in the day from Tyler Buck Belford, 36, who is charged with homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Simboli, of Monongahela. Belford was the driver of a pickup truck that struck the Ford Fiesta at Brownlee Road and Route 136 the night of Jan. 3, 2015.

Lucas allowed jurors to deliberate until about 9:40 p.m. before sending them home. He told them to return at 9:30 this morning to resume deliberation.

While most of the events surrounding the accident weren’t in dispute, Belford’s attorney, Gary Gerson, and Assistant District Attorney Leslie Ridge differed about whether they supported a conviction.

“This was an accident,” Gerson said. “A tragic accident, but an accident nonetheless.”

Ridge contended she “can think of no better example” of recklessness than Belford’s actions that night.

Belford testified he was on-call that night, filling in for a co-worker who had taken vacation during the week of the New Year holiday, but said the natural gas meter he needed to fix was not an emergency.

Part of the defense’s case relied on doubt about whether the car Simboli’s boyfriend, Christopher Weber, was driving had its lights on as it approached the intersection.

He saw a vehicle’s headlights 600 to 700 feet away headed east, but he testified he didn’t know if it was the one his truck hit. The force of his truck’s airbag deploying knocked off his glasses and made him feel dizzy and nauseated. Belford immediately called 911 and saw Weber walking in front of it before emergency responders arrived.

A decorated U.S. Navy veteran of the Iraq War, during which he specialized in electronics, Belford said when he was on his way to remedy the problem at a natural gas processing plant, he saw “white” – the color of Simboli’s car – in front of him as the crash occurred, but not the car’s headlights.

“I don’t know that the Ford had its lights on,” Belford testified under questioning by his attorney, Gary Gerson, who pointed to uncertainty about the headlights throughout his 50-minute closing argument to jurors.

“Tyler didn’t see the Ford lights because they were not on,” he said.

Ridge listed this among the “distractive theories” she said the defense had lodged and instead told jurors Belford failed to stop at the intersection, causing the accident that claimed Simboli’s life.

“He admitted he never stopped at the intersection,” she said.

Belford, in statements to police the night of the crash, said he halted his truck on Brownlee at its double stop signs before entering Route 136. Yet forensic evidence later gathered from his vehicle’s computerized crash data retrieval system that showed it did not stop during the five seconds before the collision. On Tuesday, Belford said he was not disputing evidence from the truck’s data recorder.

Trooper Chad Weaver testified when he checked the Fiesta before it was towed, the dashboard headlight switch was positioned “on,” although the headlights were not illuminating. Firefighters typically disable a crashed car’s battery so it will not spark a fire, he told the jury.

Under cross-examination by Ridge, Belford acknowledged he did not mention lack of headlights in either a written or 34-minute video-recorded statement he gave that night to police. Belford wrote his statement in what he described as a “chaotic” emergency department where he was being treated for head and neck injuries.

“Even if you don’t see lights in the Simboli vehicle, do you not have a duty to stop properly in that intersection?” Ridge asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Belford, who earlier had said he lost his natural gas technician’s job Jan. 1 due to the collision.

At another point in his testimony, Belford drew on his naval background to further describe the effect Simboli’s death had on his own life.

“First and foremost, when you lose someone in battle, there is nothing to be done to fill that gap,” he testified. “To know I was involved somehow in inflicting that pain on the Simboli family, it’s not something I want to be a part of. I have to watch my wife go through all of this with me,” he said before removing his glasses and wiping his eyes.

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