Drugging evidence suppressed in fatal crash case

Just days before the jury trial of a Mid-Missouri woman accused of killing a man in a drunk driving crash is set to start, a Montgomery County judge granted a motion to suppress evidence she was drugged.

Kelli Smith, 25, is charged with involuntary manslaughter for the February, 2012, crash that killed Thomas Sullivan. Prosecutors allege she drove the wrong direction on I-70 at least 7 miles before the crash.

Her defense attorney, Jennifer Bukowsky, argued Smith was drugged with a date rape drug.

In court documents obtained from the hearing, Bukowsky questioned a firefighter who responded to the crash. He said he found Smith unconscious and naked from the waist down.

Smith was given a rape kit at the hospital, and documents show she also had injuries consistent with forcible rape.

But the state argued that her blood test came back negative for a date rape drug.

Bukowsky said that is because her blood wasn’t drawn until seven and a half hours after the accident. By then, her body could have cleared the drug. According to the University of Arkansas, a blood test must be drawn four hours after ingestion of G.H.B.

Documents also show the state trooper who took her blood sample to the crime lab had it for 59 hours without refrigeration — a fact the defense said could have messed with the results.

Still, the judge granted the motion to suppress the drugging evidence, so it will not be heard in her trial.

She can appeal that suppression decision in a higher court.

Her trial starts Monday and is expected to last 3 days.