A trial date has been set for a 59-year-old driver accused of mortally striking a popular local runner.
Valerie Bray's vehicular homicide case goes before a jury on Aug. 2 in Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz's courtroom. She has a update hearing scheduled for July 20 and remains out on bond.
Cameron Bean, 28, died after being struck by a car while running along Moccasin Bend Road in September 2015. He was struck on Sept. 19 and died on Sept. 20.Police said Bray was driving on Moccasin Bend Road on Sept. 19 when she swerved into 28-year-old Cameron Bean as he was running against traffic along the side of the road. She had a child in the car and sped away from the scene. Two days later, Bean died from his injuries.
Police didn't immediately arrest Bray, who said the sun in her eyes prevented her from seeing Bean - but they named her as a suspect days after the accident. Bray wasn't taken into custody until January, when a grand jury indicted her on charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident.
Her attorney, Bill Speek, has described his client as a cooperative, harmless woman who worked for at least a decade at Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute.
"There's clear civil liability in this case," Speek said of his client in January. "But our position is she should not have been charged with vehicular homicide, given the facts and circumstances of the case as we understand it."
Bean, who ran for Baylor School and attended Samford University, was one of the top runners in the nation who specialized in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Before returning to Chattanooga in August, he spent five years running professionally for an outfit in North Carolina. He also worked at Fast Break shoe store and operated Magnum Training, a personal coaching business to help runners and triathletes reach their full potential.
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