Jury convicts Ellison on lesser charges

PALMER — She’s not quite off the hook but a Palmer jury saw fit Friday to hand down a verdict that will reduce the time in prison Renee Ellison faced on drunken driving, assault and reckless driving charges.

Ellison, 24, completed her second trial on the same set of charges Thursday, with the jury returning its verdict the next day. This go-round the jury saw fit to acquit her of more serious first- and second-degree assault counts but did convict her of two counts of third-degree assault, reckless driving and driving under the influence (DUI).

What that means, in cold, hard reality, is that Ellison, who after her first trial was facing a conviction on all counts and a minimum of seven to 11 years in prison for the first-degree assault conviction faces substantially less time.

“She now faces a minimum sentence on the assault three counts from zero to two years for each of the assault counts,” said assistant district attorney Mike Walsh Monday.

The DUI charge, he said, carries a minimum of three days and reckless driving will likely be merged into that count. So, it seems, Ellison’s facing between three days and four years in prison.

“We’re disappointed but we accept the jury’s verdicts,” Walsh said of the new convictions.

The case has been winding its way through court ever since the early morning hours of June 18, 2006 when Ellison was in an accident at Seward-Meridian Parkway and Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Prosecutors say Ellison ran a red light and T-boned a taxicab, putting cabdriver Kim Alred and her passenger Jason Hamilton in the hospital. Ellison was also hospitalized.

In tapes played at trial, Ellison provided a different version of events — she went through the light when it was yellow and the cab T-boned her.

The accident put Alred out of work for a number of months, she testified at trial. In testimony outside the jury’s presence she said in the aftermath of the wreck she ended up losing her house.

Last year, Ellison accepted an 11th-hour plea agreement as jurors were being picked for her trial. Under the terms of that agreement she was to serve five years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea to second- and third-degree assault and misdemeanor DUI.

When it came time to hand down a sentence, though, Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler balked, refusing to accept the deal.

In an interview, Walsh said that Cutler’s stated reasons were that she believed the prison term was too harsh.

The case then went to trial, where Ellison was convicted on all counts, leaving her facing a potentially steeper sentence than she’d previously agreed to serve.

On a motion for a new trial based on new evidence coming to light, Cutler granted Ellison’s motion for a new trial. Some of that evidence was hashed out in hearings outside the jury’s presence and had to do with Alred’s medical history, which included problems with her back that might have contributed to the fractured vertebrae she received in the wreck.

“Those fractures weren’t there prior to your client running the light,” Alred said simply under questioning from Ellison’s attorney, Bruce Brown.

Walsh said in an interview that the defense presented no new evidence at the second trial.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.