Original subtitles

A loved one of theirs was lost.

They feel somebody needs to pay for that.

Worst case scenario,

I end up going to prison.

This whole thing is a bad nightmare.

You just expect to wake up from it.

Then you realize you are awake.

My client, Mr. Mccombs,

is accused of crossing over the double yellow line

and causing a head-on collision.

I'm just taking a look at a few photos to see

exactly how violent this car accident was.

Roland and Perry greaves were the men in this car.

Jason was travelling east on 71

and the greaves were travelling west.

Jason is accused of going over the line

and having a head-on collision.

You can see some of the skid marks right here

where it looks like the greaves came across

into Jason's Lane,

trying to avoid this accident.

The greaves spun around, best we can tell,

and stayed, actually, in the road.

Jason's vehicle then comes to stop

in the bar ditch,

catches fire,

and some innocent bystanders came by

and pulled Jason out of his vehicle.

Roland and Perry, father and son.

Roland was killed at the scene.

He was about 80 years old.

And then, Perry is still alive today,

but he's hurt very bad, I believe.

This was a car accident, not a crime.

I don't want this to be the precedent

that someone gets in a car accident, someone gets hurt,

and therefore, some otherwise innocent person

gets charged with a felony such as manslaughter,

It terrifies me that these are the kind of events

that cause people to get charged

and have to go to jury trials

and literally fight for their lives.

I'm the sole supporter, I'm the sole provider.

After the accident, I,

lost my job as, executive director

for the health care company I worked at.

A few people where I worked knew about the accident and...

I don't know what they knew, but they knew enough.

So...

Things just... You know, I can't...

I can't prove it and I don't dwell on it.

You know, obviously, I've got a family to support.

I needed to do some work, I needed to make money,

so I, started working for a roofing company

as a general contractor.

I'm working, yeah, really hard right now

to build things up.

And my wife, if things do take a turn,

I've got her.

Kind of knowledgeable enough where she can take over

some of my stuff that I have going on.

She can step right in

and that way, at least that money that I have built up,

she can have some sort of an income.

It is what it is.

I just pray and pray and pray and pray and hope that

that's not what it comes down to.

Together, Jason and I have six kids.

Jason's a very hands-on father.

He's the kindest person that you'll ever meet.

He's very funny, very laid back

and goofy,

he listens.

Which you don't come across very often anymore.

So right now,

I'm on my way to go to my attorney's office.

He wants to go over

some of the charges that have been brought against me

in my indictment.

The other family, all they know is that there was an accident,

a loved one of theirs was lost.

And so, for whatever reason,

they feel somebody needs to pay for that.

Be it accident or not.

I mean, an accident's an accident.

And as much as you would want

some type of closure from it,

somebody to blame,

it's not always that easy.

I don't know how I would react on the other side.

We're not in their position, we're not in that spot.

We don't understand what they're going though.

Okay, Jason, I think a good place to start

for now is to go over the indictment.

Okay? Okay.

What they have to prove against you

is that you recklessly

caused the death of an individual.

Specifically Roland greaves. Okay?

Basically, what they're saying

is you were inattentive

and thereby caused the accident.

All righty?

There's four ways that they can prove this allegation.

Way number one

is they prove that you failed

to drive in a single Lane of traffic. Okay?

Or that you drove a car into the Lane of traffic

operated by

a motor vehicle transporting Roland greaves.

Okay?

Or that you failed to keep a proper lookout.

Or that you failed to maintain control of your motor vehicle.

And one of those four actions caused an accident

which, took Roland's life. Okay?

It is not illegal, meaning criminal,

in the state of Texas to have a car accident.

Okay?

It is illegal to do so recklessly.

All right? What do my outcomes look like?

What is... what does the end of this look like?

Sure. Well, there's only one of a few ways

that a jury trial can end.

Way number one is that we get a not guilty,

and everybody goes home

and this is a bad memory.

Way number two is that we get a guilty.

And if we get a guilty,

then we go to phase number two of the jury trial

which is punishment.

Let's talk about this

'cause this is the scariest one.

Each one of the counts against you, Jason,

has a punishment range from probation

between two and ten years

or two to 20 years in prison.

If the jury were to come back

and put you in prison,

then they would pick a number.

Somewhere between two and 20 years.

It's always scary...

...having potential prison sentence out there.

That's terrifying.

There's nothing I can do or say

that can take that anxiety from you

or your wife. Okay?

Going forward,

we need to start preparing for the worst

and hoping for the best.

It... it's the stuff you don't want to hear.

There's no putting it aside when you hear it like that.

I'm...

I punish myself enough for what happened

because it was an accident.

It happened. I can't change that.

Now it feel like

I'm being

judged and ruled

for something that was just what it was.

It was an accident. And there's...

It...

Whatever a jury does to him,

I don't know if it'll be more than what

his conscience has already done.

This weighs on him every single day.

Um, just praying for the, family.

I can't even fathom what they've gone through.

It's so tragic and devastating.

With our house of friggin' sports team,

it takes a lot of food. -Yeah.

A lot of times, goofing off with my family,

I do my best to shield them from this.

This is not something that I wanna put them though.

Hey.

I got a monster on my back.

If I didn't have my family,

I couldn't say where I'd be right now.

What's at stake is our...

Our family being pulled apart.

And it's very difficult to process.

Though I just try not to let myself go there.

To be accused feels unfair.

First thing that comes to my mind

when I think of a criminal

is a thief, murderers.

I think of people that are intentionally hurting someone

or taking something from someone,

and something that my father worked years for

to protect people from.

He served 28 years on the San Antonio police department

before he retired.

Having a spell? Yeah.

I'm sorry, guys, i'm...

You okay?

I wish Wayne was able 'cause he's done,

over the years, hundreds and hundreds

of, reports on car accidents

before he got sick.

He went to the crash site, did all the measurements there,

found all the skid marks, everything.

And he came to me and said,

"I don't think they can prove either way."

He said, "I don't think we'll ever know.

"If the other person went over or if Jason went over."

So...

It's just a terrific accident

that both families will never completely recover from.

He was a handful.

We had to give you a run for your money.

Hell, yep. Yeah.

You know, I chased criminals, it didn't bother me.

Boy, but chasing him...

He's been my best friend my whole life.

You know, I don't want to think about life without him.

Yeah.

This whole ordeal...

...has just stressed him so much.

Part of me thinks that it's this that caused the cancer.

Hey, Ashley, Jason. Good to see y'all.

Thanks for coming in.

How are you? -Good.

Y'all come on back. Follow me.

I want to, spend some time

going over all the evidence that they have against you

which supports their allegations

so that we can better defend against it.

All right?

One of the scariest items that's out there, Jason,

is this one right here.

Because it says that you have morphine in your blood.

Anytime a juror hears

that someone has something

as powerful as morphine

in his blood or her blood,

that's something you don't want

to have to defend against if you can help it.

I had taken it the day before for my back.

No, I understand that.

But that is not a defense.

It is illegal

to drive a motor vehicle

with morphine in one's blood

if that means that you have lost the normal use

of your mental or physical faculties.

Do you have the prescription for the morphine,

that you took the day before?

It was probably...

I'm sure the bottle was in my car.

All right. That's just something

we're gonna have to deal with. Okay?

Now, the next big subject, of course, is the text messages.

You understand that there's an allegation

that you were on the phone for text messaging

whenever this accident took place?

The prosecution are going to take the position

that you were using your phone

whenever the accident happened.

Do you know or remember anything

that can help me understand the accident?

No. I don't remember anything.

Okay.

Who's the first person you remember speaking to

after the accident?

I vaguely remember a trooper coming to the hospital.

All right. This is a police surmise

of who went to the hospital

and interviewed you, I believe.

And you said that you'd been on the phone earlier.

Do you remember five, ten minutes before the accident?

Just before getting on 71 I had received a text.

It was a text from work.

So I pulled over,

sent a quick reply and then continued on.

The chief officer on this case

jumps to his conclusion

that says that you must have been on your phone

and texting and drifting

into the opposite Lane.

According to their expert,

the accident occurred in this Lane.

That means that

you crossed over the mid line

and had the accident with them.

That's a bad fact if that's true, for US. Right?

A bad accident took place,

they think they may know possibly, could be how it happened. Okay?

And maybe possibly you could have been on your cellphone.

Possibly.

That's a long way from beyond a reasonable doubt.

Much of our case and much of our defense

is going to be built around

this is simply a car accident and nothing more.

And so, we're all gonna go out to the crash site

where all this took place.

I know it's gonna be painful, Jason,

but we absolutely need it

to prepare for trial.

Okay.

As a defense attorney, you wanna go out,

you wanna see the scene, walk the scene.

And I want to see those gouges in the road.

You wanna go out there and you wanna see

what Jason saw

and you wanna see what Roland and what Perry saw

just before the accident.

That cannot be overstated.

I think that these officers may take for granted

that we are just going to assume

that their version of how this accident took place

is gonna be the one that we go with.

We are questioning every portion of this accident

and the version of how this accident happened.

Is this the spot?

This is the spot. There's the area... Yeah.

Their vehicle, the greaves' vehicle,

would have been pointed right there.

There's the fence post right there.

So...

I'm gonna go take a look at it right away.

This gouge right here,

it's part of where the greaves' car landed

and then Jason's car landed right over there

up against that embankment.

I think these two are door handles.

And then there's stray pieces of trim...

...from Jason's car all over.

That must have been one hell of a fire.

It is a struggle to be here.

For like, it's something that

I'll live with for the rest of my life.

Just knowing that it happened

is enough to have to live with.

And for anybody on either side.

Come here. Come here.

The jury is gonna wanna have an explanation

as to why this accident took place.

By getting here, I get a good understanding and idea

of the layout,

of the breaks in the road.

For example,

if you look at this vehicle coming up over here,

you can't see the vehicle right now

until it comes up over this curve right here.

This is a blind hill.

Meaning the drivers who were coming this way, the greaves,

could not see up over that hill.

To no fault of their own.

But no one coming over that hill can see

until, at 70 miles an hour,

they meet with these folks who were coming off that turn,

also at 70 miles an hour.

You can see coming this direction,

which is where Jason was coming,

just how sharp that curve is.

That is something I'm gonna have to convey to the jury

that, "hey, this turn that Jason was coming out of

"is a dangerous turn."

Which can be an explanation

to how Jason ended up in this oncoming Lane.

This scene supports and gives US a defense

as to why this accident would take place the way it did.

Jason and the greaves were effectively

headed at each other at 140 miles an hour

that's not a lot of time to respond.

And that's not a bad defense.

If we can explain it to the jury in a simple way,

the layout of this road,

we'll have a fighting shot for Jason.

What I'm looking at is the toxicology report.

The results of his blood tests

indicated that there was morphine in his blood.

But it was less than 0.01 milligrams per liter.

Which is almost next to nothing.

Less than 0.01 milligrams per liter

is not adequate

to believe that a person lost the normal use

of his or her mental or physical faculties.

But it's something that we absolutely wanna defend against.

We do not want to leave any stone unturned.

If I were in Jason's shoes,

and I had six kids and a wife,

then I would do anything and everything I could

to avoid the uncertainly of a jury trial.

With a plea bargain,

you know exactly how your case is gonna end.

With a jury trial, you have absolutely no idea

if you're gonna be a convicted felon

or if you're gonna go to prison for the next 20 years.

The best hope would be to get there and something comes up

and it just goes away.

You know, where they put a deal on the table

that just really can't be passed up.

Um, expect the worst, hope for the best.

Hey, Austin.

How you doing? How you holding up?

Hi. Hey, mom. Doing okay?

We just have to wait to see what the outcome's gonna be.

It's a lose-lose situation for both families.

It won't make them feel better.

And it definitely hurts US.

You know, as a mother,

no matter how old your children are,

you still hurt when they hurt.

Let's get this over with.

Well, the only offer

that the prosecution is making

was prison time.

We didn't really negotiate the numbers

because Jason and I weren't receptive

to any type of prison time.

Even if it was something minimal.

And the greaves family will only agree to prison time.

That's my understanding.

And it's just not something we can agree to.

And so, our only other option is to go to a jury trial,

which is where we're headed.

The police accused Jason of crossing the line.

And the reason they say he crossed the line

is because he was using his cellphone.

Law enforcement and the district attorney's office

have subpoenaed Jason's phone records

to try to get an idea if it is something

that they, meaning law enforcement,

can prove, um,

that being whether or not Jason used his cellphone

when the accident took place.

Yes, he was honest that he had used his cellphone

prior to the accident,

but the prosecution must prove that he was reckless

Hey, Jason. Hey, Austin.

Good to see you. Thanks for making the trip.

How are you, man?

Good. Sit with me.

Here is what I wanna do today. Okay?

I wanna help build a timeline

just before the accident.

Because the few minutes before the accident,

the entire case live and dies right there.

We have got to attack this position

taken by the police

that you were on a cellphone

when the accident took place.

So, let's see

what the at&t records show from your phone.

This is the last phone call you made before the accident.

About 37 minutes

before the accident took place.

You with me?

Well, this was a two minute and ten second phone call

and clearly, you were not on the phone

whenever the accident took place

as far as talking.

Right. Now, let's go into text messages

just before the accident.

So we're looking at something just before 3:18.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Where is the text message you sent to your employee

two minutes before the accident happened?

Know what I mean? Yeah.

Everything... The whole accident... I...

I wish I had a clearer recollection of everything.

Okay.

If you were in the middle of a text message,

and had a car accident,

well then, it stands to reason that

that text message will be half sent.

That's correct. Okay.

And so, if the police thought

that you were texting whenever this happened,

why didn't they get your cellphone?

That is their oversight.

Yes. Yes?

Not your mistake.

Understand?

Where's the phone right now that you had that day?

That phone was...

I'd given it to my... 'Cause I got a new phone.

And so I gave that phone to my son.

I mean, it was completely erased

and made new for him. Okay.

Now this is important.

How did the phone survive that fire?

Do you know?

It was probably I had... maybe...

Weren't like that if I had it in my pocket.

Good.

Do you remember that?

That's the only way it could have

made it out of the vehicle.

Okay. If the phone's in my pocket,

then chances are

it was in my pocket the entire time I was driving.

You with me?

'Cause it that phone was in your pocket

whenever you were pulled out of that car,

the likelihood of you being on it

while you were driving,

text message, that thing goes down.

Winning and losing hinges on

whether or not Jason was using his cellphone.

The only evidence that

Jason had anything to do with his phone

was Jason's statement

that, "I was on the phone

"a few minutes before the accident."

Now we have to get the jury to buy into this idea

that Jason made this statement

about being on the phone

while he was under this extremely traumatic situation,

and that was just some memory

that was floating around in his head

that came out when being questioned by law enforcement.

So, if the prosecution can't prove what happened,

okay, our position is

they didn't overcome their burden of proof,

so Jason's not guilty.

We received pictures of Perry greaves in the hospital.

This member of his family

took these and provided them to the prosecution

to give the district attorney an idea of how Perry's doing.

You can't help but feel for this man.

He appears to be in a vegetative state.

I can see why they want Jason to go to prison.

I mean, regardless of guilt or innocence.

I mean, look what they did to this guy.

He's not getting any better.

I cannot imagine the prosecution

hearing from the victim's family

that they would be okay

or consent to probation for Jason.

Specially given these new pictures.

There are going to be people out there who say,

"those pictures are terrible.

"We gotta hold somebody criminally responsible."

All right, Jason, will you have this woman to be your wife?

To live together in holy covenant of marriage?

Will you love her, comfort her,

honor and keep her in sickness and in health...

If we weren't meant to work out,

this would tear US apart.

I can only see what I'm going through

through my perspective.

I can't imagine how hard it is

to go through it from her perspective as well.

Knowing and feeling and seeing it

through her eyes and her feelings.

Um...

I'm not going anywhere.

Like, we're in this together for the long haul.

I don't know where I would be

right now without her, honestly.

I don't know where.

...together in holy covenant of marriage?

Will you love him, comfort him,

honor and keep him in sickness and in health

and be faithful to him for as long as you both shall live?

If so, say, "I will." I will.

All right.

This case is about emotion.

What's important is the legal aspect

versus the human aspect in a case like this.

You have got to address that emotion

that is going to be in the jury box from the beginning.

Couple of things I wanna talk about with you. Okay?

The prosecution is going to

read the indictment.

Then the judge will turn and look at you, okay,

and look at you and say,

"Mr. Mccombs, how do you plead?"

Right?

That is a very, very important time.

So, you say, you know, very simple, and say,

"not guilty, your honor." Okay?

But there's a wrong way to do it and there's a right way.

And it's not, "not guilty, your honor."

Okay? It's not, "not guilty, your honor."

That's not it. Okay?

Frankly, we don't care what the judge thinks.

You talk to that jury. Okay?

That's why we talk to, is the jury.

It's, "not guilty, your honor,"

like it's true.

I'm saying, "not guilty, your honor," but I'm looking at the jury?

You look at that jury.

We will say it one time, we get one shot at it.

Okay? And it's very, very important.

I know. It's important. Okay?

That make sense?

All right. You, Jason, have the option to testify.

You cannot be compelled to testify

and I can't stop you. Okay?

And I can't tell you to. That's your option.

That's one of the few things

that you are the Alpha and the omega of. Okay?

Ultimately, I don't think we're gonna put you on the witness stand

unless you absolutely want to.

What do you think?

I don't know.

Honestly, I don't know.

Well, it's one of those...

You can always make a game time decision.

All right? My suggestion is that you don't.

All right? That's my advice.

I don't... If you were me what would you do?

I would not testify.

Not in this particular case.

You don't think it will come across badly to the jury

if I'm not up there? No.

You know, the fifth amendment, the election not to testify.

You cannot be compelled

to provide evidence against yourself,

meaning, called as witness against yourself.

It's unconstitutional. Okay?

Your election not to testify

will not cut either way.

Logan, Dillon, come downstairs and eat.

Food's ready.

Dear father, we just want to thank you

for the time you've given US

this weekend with our families.

We ask that you take this food

and bless it to our bodies as we bless our bodies to your service.

In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

For me, the worst case scenario

is that I end up going to prison

for something that was an accident.

And...

And I miss my kids.

My dad's sick.

I don't know how much longer he has.

And to think about that...

...is so scary.

I know Jason is terrified.

I'm sure I would feel the same way

if I was faced with something like this.

I can't tell you exactly what the jury's gonna do.

I think anybody who tells you

that they know what a jury's gonna do

hasn't tried winning jury trials.

We made some good points

with some of the officers who testified.

We also talked about the cellphone records.

And we're happy to bring out

that, there's really no proof

that Jason was on his phone.

It's a scary day.

Mrs. Greaves, who is the wife of Perry, the survivor,

she did a very good job and she was very emotional.

I think that's why the state put Mrs. Greaves on last.

It was a smart move, which we had to respond to.

We had to put some time between

when her testimony ended

and the jury began to deliberate.

And so, going back and forth,

I just made the game time decision

that the jury, I think,

probably wanted to hear from Jason.

And he got up there and he told the truth

and he did awesome.

He was emotional

and made me little emotional

and one of the jurors, one of them...

One of the male jurors was actually crying with Jason.

I think it was a wise decision. Although, you never know.

It's very scary for Jason.

This may be the last time

he spends a night in his own bed,

in the house with his own family.

This may be the last time he ever sees his dad.

'Cause if he goes to prison, then there's a very good chance

that he won't ever shake his dad's hand again.

I couldn't fathom being denied my family.

I couldn't imagine. I couldn't imagine that.

I couldn't.

I don't want to imagine that.

We just did closing arguments.

Um, I got to talk for about 15 minutes.

Frankly, I could've spoken for much more.

I asked for more from the judge,

but it wasn't given to me.

Um, now we wait.

For the defense, you want the jury to be out as long as possible.

It means that they're discussing the issues.

It means that they're discussing beyond a reasonable doubt

and looking at the evidence.

Um, if they come back quickly,

usually, less than an hour, an hour and a half,

it usually doesn't bode well for the defense.

So we want them out as long as possible.

I can't thank you enough, man.

You're beautiful.

We got a not guilty on all counts.

And so we are ecstatic.

I'm proud of you.

Now we can shift our focus off of me to you.

I... I'm just happy that you're...

I know. I don't care about me.

Well, we all do. So...

Well...

You're my baby. My baby.

I... I feel like

mount Everest has just been taken off my back.

I haven't felt this way in...

Since all this

trial stuff started since the arrest.

Putting your life or your outcome

into 12 people... Twelve strangers' hands

is the most terrifying thing

anybody can ever go through.

By god's grace, I'll never have to go through that again,

can I get my husband?