Tried in the court of public opinion, Benjamin Brewer already has been found guilty of killing six and injuring others when he crashed his tractor-trailer truck into slowed traffic on Interstate 75 near the Ooltewah exit on June 25, 2015.
After all, blood tests showed he had methamphetamine in his system and had been driving without sleep longer than federal limits allow when he plowed into the vehicles on that rainy afternoon.
But as much as the victims’ families would like to be done with Brewer, they can’t be.
Out of an abundance of caution, Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Don Poole postponed on Friday the trial that would have started Monday because he wanted to be sure the defendant had all the evidence relative to his case. He said defense attorneys maintained they just learned last week of a second blood test performed on Brewer, though Poole said prosecutors did not “willfully” suppress it.
Brewer’s defense said the Hamilton County district attorney’s office should have turned over the results of the second test, but the district attorney’s spokeswoman said it was never given the results of the second test – which had been requested by the National Transportation Safety Board – and that the results if sought were equally available to both sides.