Appeals court upholds DUI conviction

June 3. 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The Alaska Court of Appeals announced recently that it upheld the Palmer Superior Court drunken-driving conviction of a man who said he was not the driver in a 2003 collision.

H. Christopher Nelson, now 44, said his friend, Hailey Bryan, now 40, was driving a white van that rear-ended a car driven by Stephanie Jo Pine on Jan. 18, 2003.

A jury convicted Nelson in May 2002 of felony driving under the influence and driving with a revoked license.

The jury based its decision on testimony from two witnesses, William Wilks and Brenda Vincent, who said they saw movement inside that suggested Nelson and Bryan were changing places in the van.

Wilks and Vincent saw the collision and approached the scene to see if anyone had been hurt.

"The female occupant was sitting in the driver's seat, but her legs were in the aisle between the two front seats. As Vincent watched, the female occupant swung her legs toward the front of the car and positioned herself directly behind the steering wheel," the appellate court memorandum of judgment said.

While Pine was disoriented, Nelson and Bryan were apparently fine, the witnesses said.

Wilks told the jury that neither were wearing seat belts, according to court documents.

When Wasilla police officer Kristi Witherspoon arrived, Nelson and Hailey were wearing their seat belts in the van. She found this odd.

"Normally, when she arrives to investigate an accident with no serious injuries, the people involved will get out of their vehicles and approach her, so that they can tell her their side of the story," the court memorandum said.

Nelson and Bryan were both quite drunk. They told her they hadn't changed seats. Bryan had driven, they said, because Nelson's license had been revoked.

After police arrested both of them for driving under the influence, Bryan said she wasn't the driver. At the trial, she told the jury that Nelson had "urged her to switch seats with him," the memorandum said. She later pleaded no contest to providing false information to police.

Appealing the decision, Nelson said Wilks and Vincent had never actually seen him in the driver's seat, and that Bryan had a motive to shift the blame to him. But the appellate court said that while this may be true, there was enough evidence to pin the crime on Nelson.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or e-mail her at kate.golden@frontiersman.com.