Travis Kelton Hill III, who is 20, was expected to go to trial for DUI Manslaughter next month, but a revised witness list has thrown a kink into those plans. Instead, his defense attorney has added an additional possible witness, a physician/toxicologist. The assistant state attorney will need to depose the new witness, which cannot occur until July 22 in Palm Beach County, due to the high caseload the office carries. The defense advised the court at a pretrial conference that they do not intend to identify any more witnesses between now and the trial. Another pretrial conference was scheduled for early August and the state plans to proceed with a jury trial sometime in September.
Hill was charged with DUI and negligent vehicular manslaughter following the death of Kristin Marie Dessingue, a 16-year-old resident of Coconut Creek. The pair were traveling in Hill's vehicle when he allegedly failed to properly complete a curve, flipping over the vehicle. Dessingue was ejected from the truck, as was Hill. Hill sustained injuries to his neck and back, while an additional passenger only suffered minor injuries. A hospital collected a blood sample from Hill which showed a blood alcohol concentration of 0.179 percent. State law presumes a driver is impaired at 0.08 percent, although actual impairment can be demonstrated in some cases where a driver had an even lower BAC at the time of a traffic stop or accident.
Judge Peter Estrada declined to impose additional requirements for Hill's pretrial release, such as random breath alcohol and urinalysis testing, because tips about Hill's behavior were coming from an anonymous caller. "Whoever's making these phone calls does not wish to come forward and give their name, so unless they do so, I don't think I have any authority whatsoever to have a hearing to determine whether or not they actually revoke Mr. Hill's pretrial release order and put him into custody pending his trial," the judge said.
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