A bond revocation hearing filled with pointed questions about possible favoritism and personal grudges ended with a former Mobile veterinarian sent back to jail on a pending vehicular homicide charge.
The defendant is charged with vehicular homicide in the 2013 death of a 68-year-old man killed in a crash in west Mobile. He had been staying with relatives while awaiting a grand jury’s decision on whether to indict him on the felony charge, after a judge allowed him to post bond and retain his veterinary license earlier this year.
Family members of the man who died reacted with visible relief outside the courtroom as the judge’s decision was announced. “It’s a step in the right direction,” the victim’s daughter said, adding that she had been disappointed by the earlier decision to grant bond. “We were concerned with the safety of all the citizens of the state of Alabama,” she said, describing a sense of relief after Thursday’s ruling.
The bond revocation stemmed from a separate reckless driving charge tied to a Sept. 23 traffic accident that led a Mobile County district judge to reconsider the defendant’s release conditions on the original homicide charge. Witnesses testified that the defendant swerved across a highway “at least 10 times” over several miles before crashing into a culvert.
One witness, who said he followed the defendant’s vehicle out of concern that the driver might be suffering a medical emergency, testified that the defendant nearly struck oncoming vehicles head-on at least three times before the crash. The defendant has maintained that severe stomach cramps caused him to swerve and lose control.
Defense attorneys pressed the witness on cross-examination, suggesting a possible personal motive tied to a dispute involving the defendant’s father and a former pastor. The witness denied any ulterior motive, saying he called authorities that night purely out of concern for public safety, with no connection to any prior dispute.
Testimony also revealed that no field sobriety test was administered at the scene of the September crash, despite a responding deputy recommending one to a state trooper who had jurisdiction. The trooper, who had known the defendant since high school decades earlier, testified that the defendant appeared fine after the crash and that he gave him a ride home, denying that any personal familiarity influenced his decision not to test for impairment.
Prosecutors argued that any new criminal charge filed while a defendant awaits trial on a serious felony should trigger bond revocation, and the judge agreed, ordering the defendant taken into custody immediately. He is expected to remain in the Mobile County Metro Jail while the grand jury considers the original homicide charge, and faces a separate court date on the reckless driving charge in a different county early next month.