Defendant Charles Warren Luetke, left, and his attorney Sam Hudson walk through the City-County Courts Building in Chattanooga.Four years later, the captain of a towboat that collided with a small fishing boat on the Tennessee River and killed two fishermen still questions why the crash happened.
Charles Warren Luetke, 42, spent months after the June 19, 2010, wreck poring over his memory, second-guessing himself and reliving the day.
On Monday, a group of 12 strangers helped ease his burden.
“I’m very sorry that two men lost their lives, but I’m not the one responsible for it and a jury proved that,” Luetke said. “I still, to this point, don’t know how that boat got where it got without me seeing it get there.”
After a week-long trial that began May 13 and ended Monday with closing arguments, the Hamilton County jury returned within 40 minutes with a complete acquittal on all charges — two counts of criminally negligent homicide, one count of reckless operation of a boat and one count of failure to render assistance.