By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville police officer Daniel DiMatteo testified on Tuesday that he heard a van accelerate and saw defendant Bryce Allen Jr.’s “mean scowl” less than a second before the Jacksonville man ran over him and two firefighters at a March 2012 accident scene on Hwy. 161 South.
One of those firefighters, Capt. Donald (Donnie) Jones, was thrown under the van and died instantly, senior deputy prosecuting attorney Melanie Martin said during her opening statement on the first day of the 48-year-old Jacksonville man’s trial. Allen is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. The trial is set to run through Thursday.
The jury is expected to watch a video recording and hear audio of the accident in Pulaski County Court today.
Attorney Haylie Lott with the defense team said in her opening statement Allen would take it all back if he could.
She said, “We have the tragedy of this terrible accident and also the tragedy of Bryce Allen’s life,” which was plagued by bipolar disorder with psychotic tendencies. He had no motive because he didn’t know the victims, and he never left the scene of the accident — not the typical action of a murderer, who would want to avoid detection — Lott argued.
Jones was a 31-year-veteran of the department and the first Jacksonville firefighter to be killed in the line of duty.
The other firefighter, Jason Bowmaster, was more seriously injured than DiMatteo. Bowmaster also testified on Tuesday.
But Bowmaster, who has wanted to be a firefighter since age 14, when his dad became a volunteer firefighter, doesn’t remember that night. He said spending time with his daughter in January 2012 or February 2012 was his last memory before the accident.
In addition to a punctured lung, a broken pelvis, a broken clavicle and several other broken bones, the ordeal left the firefighter with nerve damage in his neck. Now he stutters and has a slight limp.
DiMatteo patted Bowmaster on the back as they traded places on the witness stand.
About Allen’s “angry” expression, DiMatteo told the jury, “I will remember it all the days of my life…There is no doubt in my mind that it was done on purpose.”
In his experience, DiMatteo said, people who cause accidents are immediately remorseful and offer to help. Allen seemed angry after the accident and didn’t offer to help, the officer testified.
At first, DiMatteo said, he thought Allen was just an impatient driver bypassing the traffic stop that had been set up and the emergency vehicles on the side of the road.
Then DiMatteo said he saw the van turn toward where he and the firefighters were. Hearing the accelerator caught his attention. He turned around.
The sound saved his life, DiMatteo said, because he was able to jump to the side.
The officer tried to warn the firefighters, but there wasn’t enough time to finish shouting, “watch out.”
DiMatteo expressed regret at not jumping in the other direction to push Jones and Bowmaster out of harm’s way.
He saw Jones being struck out of the corner of his eye.
DiMatteo told the jury, “I’d never known terror until that point. Nothing could prepare you for that.”
The officer, lying on the ground after being hit, saw Allen get out of the van and walk toward him.
DiMatteo said, “I was in fear for my life.” He reached for his gun.
But the hand that was close enough to grasp the weapon was degloved, meaning skin was pulled back from muscle and bone.
Allen mumbled something inaudible and continued walking, DiMatteo said.
The officer remembered clutching pepper spray with his other hand until he was finally taken to UAMS by ambulance.
He was with a doctor an hour and 20 minutes after the accident.
In addition to the degloving, DiMatteo’s left knee, right lower leg and foot were broken. He had a laceration on the back of his head and was later diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
But he is back on duty, and DiMatteo said he wouldn’t let Allen’s actions keep him from following his lifelong dream of serving as a police officer.
A third man who was at the scene that night also testified on Tuesday.
Ronnie Brown, described as a good Samaritan by the prosecuting attorney, witnessed the accident the three men were responding to before they were struck by Allen’s van.
Allen’s mother, Thelma, had swerved to avoid a parked car in the middle of the road. That driver fled the scene before the first responders arrived.
Lott, with the defense, said Allen’s mother’s accident triggered the defendant’s manic episode.
Thelma Allen drove her Trailblazer into a ditch and struck a gas main but wasn’t injured. She called her son, asking him to pick her up from the scene at 8411 S. Hwy. 161.
DiMatteo said Brown and Thelma Allen were a couple hundred feet away because the gas main was leaking and he was concerned for everyone’s safety.
“You could hear the gas storming out of there. You could taste it,” the officer testified.
The gas company repaired the main later.
Brown and Thelma Allen were writing statements about the first accident at Brown’s truck, which was parked across the street, when the good Samaritan heard the van crash.
He ran to DiMatteo and followed the officer’s instructions to stop traffic. Brown also checked on the firefighters, finding Jones with no pulse Bowmaster moaning but unresponsive.
DiMatteo called Brown “my arms, my legs and my hand.”
About Allen, who was pacing back and forth, Brown testified, “He gave me the heebie-jeebies a little bit…I thought it was strange he wasn’t rendering assistance.” Allen also put a tool bag in his truck, Brown said.
Martin argued in her opening statement that Allen made no attempt to brake and accelerated before he hit the men in uniform.
She said the defendant blamed a mechanical error, but no error or recall was found for the van he drove.
The first responders were wearing reflective vests. The emergency lights and headlights of their vehicles were on too, Martin said.
Judge Barry Sims, who ruled in July that Allen is mentally fit to stand trial, is presiding over the trial.
The accused has a criminal history and a history of mental illness.
Allen was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, hallucinations and delusions that included paranoia involving the Ku Klux Klan.
He was arrested in 2009 for second-degree battery of a police officer and terroristic threatening. According to court records, Allen was acquitted by reason of mental disease or defect.
The former Army corporal told the psychologist who examined him in 2010 that he had been hospitalized eight times, mostly at Fort Roots Veterans Hospital in North Little Rock.
Allen has also been accused of hitting an Ohio police officer with his car in October 2011.
The guard, who sustained a minor injury, was an off-duty police officer.
