Print edition: 
WICHITA — Jurors will return Friday morning for a second day of deliberations in the trial of a man accused of causing the death of a 5-year-old girl through reckless driving.
The verdict could hinge on whether Matthew Noel’s actions met the legal definition of “reckless” before the crash on West Kellogg that killed Amber Randolph last February. Noel’s defense said it does not, and that the Clearwater girl died in a tragic accident, not a criminal act.
Kansas law says “Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.”
That is the key element behind the charge of involuntary manslaughter. It is also a necessary factor in deciding another charge of aggravated battery in the injuries Amber’s mother, Michelle Randolph, sustained during the collision the afternoon of Feb. 12.
Convictions on either of those charges could land Noel, 27, in prison for 31 to 170 months, depending on his criminal history.
Jurors may also consider a misdemeanor charge of vehicular homicide, which is driving in a way that “creates an unreasonable risk of injury” to another and ends in a fatal crash.
Or the jury may find that Amber died in an accident and find Noel not guilty.
Both sides called witnesses who gave varying accounts of the crash. In his closing arguments Thursday morning, prosecutor Aaron Breitenbach urged jurors to look at what is consistent from the various viewpoints.
"Unlike the people who were on Kellogg that day, you get to see the whole picture of what happened that day," Breitenbach said. "You aren’t looking through one windshield or one rearview mirror. You got to hear multiple perspectives."
Prosecutors say this was no accident. Breitenbach and co-counsel Tyler Roush say Noel and his friend Ron Bevan were racing down Kellogg. When Bevan pulled in front of Noel, prosecutors say, Noel’s excessive speed made him lose control.
Noel’s red truck hit a snowbank, skipped over the concrete median into the eastbound lanes, skidded across the lanes and hit the Randolphs’ car on the far shoulder, where Randolph said she had pulled over to try to avoid the crash. The truck hit Randolph’s car head-on.
Speed is what propelled the truck to the far side of the road, prosecutors say.
Still, defense attorney Jon Womack said, witnesses driving closest to Noel said he wasn’t speeding.
"He was cut off. Witnesses said he had no place to go," Womack said.
Womack told the jury it’s easy to want to find justice for Amber and her family. But convicting an innocent man is not justice, Womack said.
“It doesn’t honor Amber’s memory,” he said.
Roush said that by all accounts Bevan was driving recklessly. By driving alongside his friend, Noel was encouraging that kind of recklessness, Roush said. They took the same route. Witnesses said Bevan passed Noel to cut him off. Roush said jurors should conclude they were driving similar speeds.
After the accident, Noel sent a text message to Bevan, who continued down Kellogg following the accident. He told Bevan, who had been drinking, to not return.
"Matthew Noel knew he was racing,” Roush said in his closing. “He told Bevan, ’Don’t come back.’ ”
The jury got the case at 10:25 a.m. Thursday. They left at 5 p.m. without reaching a verdict.
