Victim’s alleged intoxication center of arguments in deadly crash case

A judge will decide whether or not jurors will hear about a man’s level of intoxication when he died in a 2016 Columbia crash.

Attorneys will argue over the evidence during a pre-trial hearing for Joshua Keller on Friday. Prosecutors want Judge Jodie Asel to bar defense attorneys from bringing up Sebastian Sneed’s blood alcohol content or THC levels at trial.

Prosecutors charged Keller with second-degree murder and felony DWI after the New Year’s Eve crash on Business Loop 70 East and Eastland Circle. Police said Keller had an open bottle of Fireball whiskey in has car at the time, and that his blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit. Keller and Sneed crashed head-on while Sneed turned left onto Business Loop 70, flipping Sneed’s car. A six-year-old child in Sneed’s car was also injured.

Defense attorney Jenan Thompson said in a motion filed Wednesday that Sneed had a BAC of .177, more than double the legal limit, and active THC in his system at the time of the crash, citing an autopsy.

ABC 17 News has requested the toxicology results to confirm Thompson’s claims.

Assistant Boone County prosecutor Jennifer Rodewald wrote that Sneed’s alleged intoxication was not relevant to the case. Allowing it would only “confuse and mislead the jury.”

Keller is charged under Missouri’s felony muerder rule, which allows prosecutors to charge people with murder if someone dies in the commission of another felony. Rodewald cited numerous cases where judges denied appeals of felony murder convictions because of someone else’s actions, and instead put the blame on the defendant’s actions for starting a “causal chain” of events that led to someone’s death.

“In the case at hand, [Sneed]’s vehicle would not have collided with [Keller]’s vehicle had [Keller] not been operating a motor vehicle at the time, in an intoxicated condition,” Rodewald said.

Thompson wrote in response that Sneed’s intoxication would help the jury understand why the crash happened. Thompson claimed Sneed was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, while his son and Keller did wear one and survived.

“Mr. Keller’s conduct did not set into motion [Sneed]’s driving while impaired, [Sneed]’s turning left into on-coming traffic, and [Sneed]’s choice not to wear a safety belt,” Thompson said.

Arguments will take place on Friday at 10 a.m.