Opening statements took less than 15 minutes Tuesday morning in the trial of Marcus Wright, the 35-year-old Michigan City man accused of causing the death of his girlfriend and catastrophic injury to their toddler son in an auto accident in Pine Township three years ago. Prosecutors say Wright’s blood alcohol level was over twice the legal limit and he tested positive for THC.
The husband and wife, whose backyard pond in the 1600 block of Ardendale Avenue on the Porter County side of Michigan City was the site of the accident, each took the stand in Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer’s court immediately following opening remarks by Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Kiré Pavlovski and defense attorney Mark Chargualaf.
Prosecutors played the 911 recording from around 4:30 p.m. on March 22, 2022.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! I can’t even figure out where they came from. I don’t know how they got there,” says a distraught Dana LaRocco on the recording. She testified she had been in her kitchen preparing side dishes for dinner when she saw out the window something fly through the air in her backyard.
Around the front of the house, her husband Brian LaRocco was grilling the main course in the doorway of their garage. Dana LaRocco said she went into the backyard to find a car upside down in her ½-acre pond and bubbles coming to the surface. She ran around to the front of the house to get her husband and then they parted ways, he to get to the bank of the pond despite a broken leg, and she to run back into the house for her cell phone to call for help.
When Dana LaRocco returned to the pond she saw Wright standing in the water. “He was struggling for air,” she said. “He didn’t go anywhere. He stood in the water.” She then ran out to the street to watch for emergency personnel but returned to the pond when the dispatcher asked her to.
There she found her husband performing chest compressions on Wright’s 22-year-old girlfriend Alisa Oman on the dock.
“Marcus Wright tried to pin this crash on Alisa Oman,” Pavlovski told the jury, but he said evidence such as the driver’s seat being pushed all the way back, will support the state’s claim that Wright is lying about not being the driver. Pavlovski said the seat position supports the argument that Wright, who is 5-foot-11-inches, rather than Oman, who was 5-foot-4-inches, was the driver.
Pavlovski added that further testimony would also reveal, contrary to Wright’s claim, that “in fact, the brakes were fully operational,” and that Wright had purchased a bottle of brandy earlier in the day.
Chargualaf told the jury there was no disputing that the 2000 Buick LaSabre flipped and came to rest in the LaRoccos’ pond, but that they should “pay attention to the evidence of how the vehicle was found” to support his client’s claim that he was not the driver.
“You will see the body camera footage showing Marcus speaking to the officer in the hospital,” Chargualaf added. “You will hear Marcus say at least 10 times he was not driving. He was the passenger. You will find the state has not proven Marcus was operating this vehicle.”
Brian LaRocco testified that people often speed down the road in front of his house and then slow down for the turn at a T intersection. “I heard a car coming down the road,” he said. “It seemed like a high rate of speed. I didn’t hear any brakes or nothing and thought it was odd.”
Brian LaRocco testified that he saw a hand emerge on the driver’s side of the vehicle and then Wright came out of the water. He told the court he dragged Wright’s girlfriend onto the dock himself and Wright eventually joined him. LaRocco also testified that a diver arrived just minutes after the first emergency responders to the scene and was underwater 10 to 15 seconds before pulling the toddler from the vehicle.
Wright faces four counts, including three felonies: operating while intoxicated causing death, a Level 4 felony which carries a sentence of two to 12 years and a fine of up to $10,000; operating while intoxicated causing catastrophic injury, a Level 4 felony which carries a sentence of two to 12 years and a fine of up to $10,000; operating while intoxicated with a child under 18, a Level 6 felony which carries a maximum sentence of two-and-a-half years and a fine of up to $10,000; and operating with a blood alcohol level above .15, a Class A misdemeanor which carries a sentence of up to one year and a $5,000 fine.
The trial is expected to conclude Thursday.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.