Trial reset again for Cedar Rapids woman charged in fatal crash with motorcycle

CEDAR RAPIDS — A judge Friday granted another trial delay for a Cedar Rapids woman charged with vehicular homicide after a head-on crash with a motorcyclist in October 2023.

An attorney for Debra Kay Trimble, 61, asked 6th Judicial District Judge Chad Kepros to exclude testimony from a prosecution expert witness about what Trimble’s intoxication level would have been at the time of the crash, as opposed to results taken four hours after the crash that happened about 7 p.m. Oct. 3, 2023.

Trimble is charged with homicide by vehicle and operating while intoxicated. The trial has been delayed three times since she was charged.

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Nekeidra Tucker, Trimble’s lawyer, argued Friday that because the prosecution didn’t provide the report to the defense until eight days before the trial was set to start Tuesday, it shouldn’t be allowed. Or if the judge did allow it, Tucker said, the trial should be reset so the defense could hire its own expert.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Jordan Schier argued the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation criminalist, Jillissa Murphy, during a deposition last year, said the blood alcohol content of Trimble registered at .094 percent four hours after the crash — over the legal limit of .08 percent. Murphy also said the retrograde extrapolation, a calculation used to estimate the level at the time of the crash, would be much higher, he said.

Murphy estimated Trimble’s blood alcohol level would have been between .138 and .203 percent, according to the defense’s motion.

According to the prosecution’s motion, the toxicology reports showed Trimble also had cocaine in her system the day of the crash.

Schier said Tucker could have asked those questions at that deposition or hired an expert after that.

Schier said he asked Murphy for a report as he was preparing for trial. Tucker said at the time of the depositions, Murphy didn’t have this report, or the sources she used to calculate the estimated level.

Kepros said an expert saying the blood alcohol level would be “higher” at the time of the crash is different from providing the specific numbers, which was disclosed late and would be prejudicial to the defense. Kepros said he could exclude the report, which is likely important for the prosecution, or reset the trial.

Schier asked for a continuance. Kepros reset the trial to Sept. 16.

Motorcyclist killed on way to Menards

Trimble, driving a Pontiac Vibe, crashed head-on with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle driven by Chad Eugene Craig, 48, of Cedar Rapids, at 3850 Cottage Grove Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, according to a criminal complaint.

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Witnesses told police Trimble passed another vehicle in a no-passing zone uphill and on a curve as she struck the motorcycle, which was driving in the proper lane. Craig died at the scene.

Law enforcement at the scene said Trimble had bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred and mumbled speech and had a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on her breath,” the complaint stated. Trimble failed a field test and refused to take other tests at the scene.

Trimble told police she drank three alcoholic beverages, according to the complaint. She was taken to the Linn County Jail and consented to providing a breath sample that registered a blood alcohol content of .109, according to the complaint.

The investigators believed Trimble was intoxicated and was at fault for the crash that killed Craig, the complaint stated.

Dawn Lienau, Craig’s wife, told The Gazette after his death that both of them normally would have been at work that night at Kraft Heinz in southwest Cedar Rapids — but they had taken bereavement leave after the recent death of Lienau’s sister.

She said her husband was going to Menards that evening and asked her to go with him, but she declined. When he didn’t return, she started to wonder where he might be — but wasn’t too worried because he was always stopping to help someone. He “loved his cars and was always working on somebody’s car,” she said.

Lienau said she blacked out after hearing from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office about Craig’s fatal crash.

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