Walter Bolt

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County prosecutors responded Tuesday to a motion by Walter Bolt, 65, of Struthers, that the blood evidence in his aggravated vehicular homicide case be thrown out.

Assistant Prosecutor Steve Maszczak cited 29 court rulings in refuting Bolt’s allegation that necessary blood draw procedures were not followed in his case.

Bolt was indicted this month on two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, one count of aggravated vehicular assault and three counts of drunken driving for the March 3 crash on state Route 170 north of New Middletown that killed Angela M. Brown, 44, of New Middletown, and her son, Jason Daff, 15.

The Springfield Township crash also badly injured her other son, Jayden Daff, 12. Bolt’s vehicle hit Brown’s vehicle head-on.

A trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol arrived at the crash location at about 8:12 p.m., saw the two damaged vehicles, the injured parties in both vehicles, first responders and two open cans of beer and a bottle of liquor in Bolt’s pick up truck, the filing states.

Armed with a search warrant from Struthers Municipal Court Judge James Melone, the trooper went to the hospital where Bolt was taken. A nurse collected a blood sample from Bolt and gave it to the trooper.

The filling lists the people who handled the sample through that process, including the nurse who collected it, the trooper who took it from the nurse and the trooper who stored the sample in the Highway Patrol evidence refrigerator.

The results showed that Bolt had a blood-alcohol level of 0.215, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 to drive in Ohio, the filing states.

Bolt’s filing alleged that the blood results are not reliable because authorities have not stated who drew the blood or what the person’s qualifications are. “Furthermore, the records do not specify the type of blood collection tube used, whether the blood was mixed properly to ensure preservative effectiveness or whether the proper skin preparation technique without alcohol was followed,” Bolt’s filing alleges.

But Maszczak disagreed, saying that evidence will be presented at a hearing before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum that state troopers and others “complied or substantially complied” with the rules in Ohio law.

To suppress the blood evidence, Bolt would have to show by a preponderance of evidence that the facts in the affidavit the trooper presented to Melone included intentionally false statements or the trooper executed an affidavit with reckless disregard for the truth, the prosecution filing states.

Maszczak argued that the affidavit presented to Melone “more than satisfies” the standard of evidence required to establish probable cause and issue the search warrant.

The defense suppression motion, filed by Rhys Cartwright-Jones, is scheduled for a hearing at 9 a.m. June 23. But Maszczak filed a separate motion Tuesday asking for that hearing to be postponed on the grounds that a critical prosecution witness for the hearing is unavailable that day.

Kimberly Bevlin, who analyzed Bolt’s blood sample for alcohol content, was previously subpoenaed to appear for a hearing in northwest Ohio that day and the next, the filing states.