All those who testified Thursday in the state's case against Sumter resident Chad Morris admitted before Judge Roger Young and a jury that the boat wreck which killed 21-year-old Hailey Bordeaux on late July 3, 2014, was a horrible tragedy.
Witnesses for the state's case and the defense, however, differed considerably from there, rarely agreeing on who called 911 first, whether anyone was thrown from Bordeaux's boat, whether boat lights were on and whether Morris cooperated with state Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officers.
Morris himself was the last witness of the day, taking the stand to say that he "walks around with this every day."
"I'm not over it," he said. "I hate that this happened. I think about it every day. If I could change anything, I would've never went fishing that day. I'd have never went to the lake."
Morris told jurors that he had gotten of work the afternoon of July 3 and wanted to go to a fishing tournament, but a friend of his wasn't interested. The 40-year-old machine worker said he then met up with Frankie Card and his now-estranged wife, Jessica Long, to go out on his boat in Lake Marion.
Morris said they set off from John C. Land III Landing and were in the area around Scarborough's late July 3 when the boat hit something.
"I didn't know what we'd hit," Morris said. "We'd only been going 20 mph or so because we had a smaller boat following us and we were going through an area with stumps."
Morris said when his boat got turned around, he saw he'd hit a boat. He said the boat had no lights on at the time of the wreck.
"I didn't know what to do; I just, like, froze," Morris said. "I remember a lot of cussing going back and forth between our boat and the other boat."
According to state DNR law enforcement officers, Morris' boat ran up and over the side of the boat in which Hailey Bordeaux, her boyfriend, Steven Stafford, and Justin and Caroline Cromer were idling.
Bordeaux was severely injured and taken by a pontoon boat to Scarborough's Landing where EMS and other emergency responders tended to her injuries.
"At the time of the wreck, I knew she was hurt, but I didn't know she was hurt as bad as she was," Morris said.
Long testified through Facetime on iPad that Morris was in a state of shock after the wreck. She agreed with Morris that no boat lights were on, and that they didn't initially know they'd hit a boat.
"We thought maybe it was a floating log or something like that," she said. "We were trying to get them to calm down on the other boat and so we could find out what was going on."
Long admitted she told those in Bordeaux's boat to "shut up," though she denied using an obscenities as put forward by 3rd Circuit Assistant Solicitor Chris DuRant.
"I did tell them to shut up and tell us what was wrong," said Long.
Long never estimated a speed at which Morris' vessel was traveling, but said during questioning that she felt safe on the boat before the wreck.
"I didn't feel unsafe or like that we were going a dangerous speed," said Long, who also said she was the only one at the site of the wreck to call 911.
A later defense witness, Stephanie Barkley, told jurors that Long called 911 when she, Card and Morris were on the short at her parents' lake house, shortly after the wreck.
"Frankie and Chad came up and said they'd hit someone, and that the people in the other boat wouldn't let them help them," Barkley said. "Jessie called 911, and we were trying to calm them all down."
Barkley said Morris at no time tried to flee from her parents' back yard.
"He helped us flag down the DNR officers, and he told them he was the boat that hit them," Barkley said. "They were all shaken up, really bad. They looked like ghosts."
Rusty Harrington, owner of the home at which Morris met initially with DNR law enforcement officers, testified that Morris said at his home something to the effect of, "I'm not going tonight. I'll take care of it in the morning."
DuRant used this in his opening argument to the jury, and again in questioning Thursday, to paint Morris as unwilling to deal with the situation and help law enforcement figure out what happened.
Morris, however, contended that he was speaking of his own boat, talking about the damages and his assertion that the boat was taking on water.
DuRant has presented witnesses over two days of testimony in an attempt to show that Morris was driving the boat in excess of 50 mph, and that he fled the scene shortly after colliding with the boat carrying Bordeaux and her three companions that night.
Defense attorney Shaun Kent told jurors on Tuesday morning that his client is "civilly, financially and morally liable for Hailey Bordeaux's death."
"But he's not criminally liable," Kent said.
Morris agreed during questioning by Kent on the witness stand.
Closing arguments and jury deliberations are expected Friday at the Clarendon County Courthouse.
UPDATE: Jury now deliberating Morris' fate
UPDATE: Morris found guilty
UPDATE: Morris gets five years
