Last Updated on February 8, 2017 by CCAR Staff
LOS ANGELES >> A Fontana woman accused of drunken driving in a February 2014 wrong-way crash that left six people dead was under sedation and wasn’t being prepared to go into surgery when an emergency room physician drew a blood sample, he testified in court Wednesday.
Dr. Christopher Coyne, an emergency room physician at Los Angeles County-USC Medical center at the time of the crash, testified in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday that Olivia Carolee Culbreath was “under what we call deep sedation.”
She had suffered traumatic injuries in the crash and was in grave to serious condition, Coyne said. She had been administered a sedative and was also receiving strong pain medication when he drew a blood sample.
Defense lawyers are attempting to show that the blood evidence collected the morning of the crash — which occurred three years ago — should not be part of the state’s case against Culbreath, who is facing six counts of murder.
Culbreath’s lawyers filed a motion more than a year ago in which they seek to suppress they’re client’s blood samples and their analysis on the grounds they were taken when she was unconscious and unable to consent to having the blood drawn. Under the circumstance, the CHP needed a warrant to obtain the samples.
Prior to Coyne giving testimony, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Padilla called Felipe Nava, a nurse who drew a blood sample, to the stand.
He said he had some memory of Culbreath’s case and recalled she was very ill.
Culbreath was intubated and was connected to a ventilator because she needed “a machine to breathe for her,” he said.
Nava said a CHP officer approached him and requested a blood sample. Nava tried to draw the blood but recalls having a difficult time doing so.
Coyne said he remembers being asked to take a blood sample and did so from the femoral vein, which is a deep vein. This is done in certain situations, such as when a patient is “very dehydrated or lost fluids,” he said.
Padilla asked if there was pain involved and the doctor responded that studies, including in an emergency medicine publication, said the level of pain would be a 2 on a scale of 10. He added the pain was very low in a patient receiving the type of pain medication Culbreath was getting.
Defense attorney Robert Sheahen asked if at the time he drew the blood sample Culbreath was going into surgery.
“I believe not,” Coyne said.
Later Sheahen asked Coyne to review testimony he gave at a preliminary hearing in the case and in it, the doctor said Culbreath was not headed for the operating room after he drew the blood.
In previous hearings, CHP officers said they requested the sample because they believed Culbreath was going into surgery.
Culbreath was allegedly driving a Chevrolet Camaro east on the westbound 60 at speeds near 100 mph when she was involved in a wrong-way, head-on crash in Diamond Bar, the California Highway Parol said.
The CHP alleges Culbreath had been drinking prior to the crash. Culbreath’s car crashed head-on into a sport utility vehicle, the CHP reported. Another vehicle then crashed into the SUV.
Two women traveling in Culbreath’s car died as a result of the crash: Culbreath’s sister, Maya, 24, of Rialto and Kristin Young, 21, of Chino.
Four Huntington Park residents were in the SUV, all of whom were thrown from the vehicle. The four victims were Gregorio Mejia-Martinez, 47, Leticia Ibarra, 42, Jessica Mejia, 20, and Ester Delgado, 80.
Proceedings in the case are expected to resume March 3.
Before then, Culbreath’s lawyers will review the medical professionals’ testimony and have it reviewed by medical experts before returning to court to present an argument for their case, Sheahen said.
Outside court, Sheahen said he does not foresee calling any medical experts to testify for the defense.
