Man to stand trial on murder charges in Starkey crash

After hearing a day’s worth of testimony about the aftermath of a crash that killed two intellectually disabled men earlier this year, a Sedgwick County judge on Wednesday ordered the man accused of causing the wreck to stand trial on multiple felony charges, including two counts of second-degree reckless murder.

Bret Blevins, 56, has pleaded not guilty to driving an SUV while drunk and on methamphetamine, speeding through a stop sign posted on a residential street in west Wichita and striking a van full of Starkey Inc. residents and staff on May 6.

He is facing a Nov. 7 jury trial on the two murder counts as well as on charges of involuntary manslaughter, four counts of aggravated battery, one count of leaving the scene of an accident and one count of driving with a suspended license.

Killed in the crash were Dirk MacMillan, 46, and Leonard “Dusty” Atterbury, 25. Two Starkey staff members and another Starkey resident, 33, were injured but survived.

Blevins and his 44-year-old female passenger were also hurt.

The collision occurred at 3:45 p.m. at the intersection of Young and Newell, which is a dirt road.

Much of the witness testimony offered during Blevins’ preliminary hearing centered around the SUV’s speed in the seconds before the crash – up to 50 mph in a 30 mph zone – and Blevins’ blood-alcohol level, which was about 1.5 times the state’s legal limit of 0.08.

His attorney, Carl Maughan, argued that the only person who testified that Blevins was actually driving the SUV at the time of the crash was also in the vehicle with him and had a reason to accuse him in order to avoid blame. He also argued that prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to support the second-degree murder charges.

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 7:41 PM with the headline "Man to stand trial on murder charges in Starkey crash."