The family of Joan LeVasseur sat in a courtroom in Hastings on Thursday, listening to a forensics expert describe the bits of her flesh, blood and hair that had been gathered from a shattered car windshield and interior long after she died and after police impounded the car.
LeVasseur, 26, who was deaf, died a week after she was struck by a car that left the scene on March 6, 2009, in Apple Valley. It would be months before officials had enough laboratory evidence to charge Eric Hunter, 41, of Rosemount.
The father of four is charged with two felony counts of leaving the scene of an accident where a death occurred and a misdemeanor count of driving after his license was suspended.
His attorney told jurors in Hastings this week that Hunter did not know what had hit his windshield and believed it may have been a bag of garbage or a deer -- but realized several days later, after seeing a newspaper article, that he had hit a woman. He then called his father and an attorney, and police were contacted, said defense attorney Peter Wold.
The accident happened on a Friday night in the northbound lane of Cedar Avenue at 153rd Street, near a grocery store where LeVasseur had been shopping. A witness said the suspect vehicle had swerved, something flew over it and the car "zoomed" north on Cedar without stopping.
Under state law, it is a felony if someone is involved in a traffic accident resulting in personal injury or death and flees the scene without rendering help, identifying himself or failing to immediately contact police.
Because the accident appeared to have been caused by LeVasseur running across the street, when Hunter had a green light, authorities could not charge him with criminal vehicular homicide, but only with leaving the scene, they said.
The details presented to the jury this week by prosecutor Kevin Golden have been graphic. He described how LeVasseur, once hit, flew across the intersection at nearly 40 miles per hour, her body badly broken.
