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Judge hears motions in Sprind case

BY BECKY MALKOVICH, The Southern

Friday, May 16, 2008 11:28 PM CDT

BENTON - A Franklin County judge heard arguments Friday morning on two defense motions in a reckless homicide case.

The court proceeding was scheduled to hear motions made by defense attorney Randy Patchett to throw out the results of blood and urine collected from William D. Sprind after a January 2007 crash that took the life of Marilyn "PI" Holt of Johnston City.

Holt was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her husband, Troy Holt.

According to police reports, Sprind was traveling northbound on Illinois 37 north of West Frankfort when his truck crossed the center line and moved into the path of the Holt vehicle. Holt reportedly drove off the shoulder of the road in an attempt to avoid Sprind's oncoming truck, but the two vehicles collided.

Sprind, 35, was charged with reckless homicide and four counts of aggravated DUI.

Sprind has a previous reckless homicide conviction stemming from the 1989 death of Joyce Bullock of Mulkeytown. Sprind, then 16, was also cited for DUI in that crash, which occurred after Sprind's vehicle struck Bullock's car as she traveled Illinois 14 in West City.

Sprind, who is from West Frankfort, also received major injuries in the 2007 crash, which have caused several delays in the court proceedings, including three previous postponements on Patchett's motions.

Judge Kyle Vantrease heard the motions in court Friday.

Patchett said the collection of blood was not done in accordance with the prevailing rules and regulations in effect at the time.

"The rule provided that a disinfectant not containing alcohol be used to clean the site (on the body) where the blood is collected," Patchett said. "The swab that was used (on Sprind) did contain alcohol."

Franklin County State's Attorney Tom Dinn acknowledged that alcohol was in the swab but disagreed about its importance.

He said the minute amount of alcohol involved would not have been enough to contaminate the blood sample and that the case against Sprind did not involve alcohol, but rather impairment caused by the use of prescription drugs and illicit drugs.

Also, he said, the rule has been changed since the blood collection on Sprind, because swabs without the alcohol are not available.

"Nothing substantiative is being changed," Dinn said. "It doesn't change the character of the case. It is only a procedural change."

He made similar arguments regarding Patchett's motion to throw out the urine collection.

Patchett argued that the urine was collected by a nurse rather than a law enforcement officer as the rules at that time stated. The rule has since been changed to include nurses as approved collectors. Patchett also said the device used to collect the urine initially was not a sterile container.

In addition to being only a procedural change, Dinn said, the circumstances surrounding the collection of the sample - Sprind was strapped to a trauma board awaiting a flight to a St. Louis hospital - made it unlikely that the state trooper in attendance could have conducted the collection. He also said the container used was new and "just out of the box."

Both attorneys presented case law in support of their arguments.

Vantrease will likely make his decision on the motions before the next pre-trial hearing set for 9:30 a.m. June 16.

A final pre-trial was set for July 28, with a jury trial to start July 29.

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