WOODLAND — Just before he allegedly caused a fatal crash on Second Street in Davis, Steven Hendrix almost struck a bicyclist and passed another vehicle on the left while traveling nearly twice speed limit, according to testimony last week in Yolo Superior Court.
“Slow down!” 12-year-old Erica Shoate, one of four children riding in the vehicle, reportedly called out as Hendrix veered westbound around the other car.
Hendrix “shrugged his shoulders” in response, Steven Gill, a Yolo County District Attorney investigator who observed the girl’s law-enforcement interview, testified during Hendrix’s preliminary hearing. “She indicated he kept going and went faster.”
Seconds later, Hendrix broadsided another vehicle pulling out from Cantrill Drive, the impact described by one witness as similar to “the sound of a sonic boom,” Davis police Detective Justin Infante said.
Future testimony regarding the investigation into the Feb. 24 collision is expected to reveal that Hendrix was traveling about 80 mph in the 45-mph zone when he slammed into Cynthia Ann Jonasen’s Honda sedan, the force pushing the frame of the vehicle into the center console.
Jonasen, a 71-year-old mother and grandmother, died at the scene.
Hendrix’s preliminary hearing, which concludes later this month, will determine whether there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial on charges including murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of drugs causing injury, child endangerment and possessing marijuana.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Five days before the crash, a Yolo County jury convicted the 32-year-old Hendrix of felony domestic violence charges in connection with a pair of assaults on his girlfriend.
The victim in that case, Beshia Shoate, rode next to Hendrix in the car at the time of the collision, headed for the homeless shelter where she, her sister and their four children had been staying for the past couple of weeks.
She recalled that they took the kids to school in West Sacramento that morning before spending the day at the library, where both she and Hendrix smoked marijuana. After school let out, they returned to the library until about 5 p.m. and then headed back to Davis, with Hendrix at the wheel.
“He was driving normal at that point,” said Shoate, adding that she was dozing when the crash occurred. “I heard the brakes squeaking, and then we was hitting into the other vehicle.”
Others had different assessments of Hendrix’s speed.
“My impression was 70 mph or more,” testified Blaise Camp, who was riding his bike on Second Street when a red Ford Taurus SUV came within a couple feet of him, then swerved into the middle lane to pass a slower-moving car.
Then, “I heard a collision, and I saw a large explosion of fluid, particles, glass,” Camp said.
Despite the force of the crash, everyone in Hendrix’s vehicle escaped with just cuts, bruises and complaints of pain. There was conflicting testimony last week as to whether anyone in the car was wearing a seatbelt; police have said they were not.
Several witnesses noted that Hendrix appeared distraught after the collision, asking, “Did I kill her? Did I hurt her? I gotta see,” and having to be restrained as he tried to check on Jonasen.
Later, under arrest at the hospital, Hendrix told a Davis police detective that “he wasn’t driving erratically and that she (Jonasen) pulled out in front of him and the collision wasn’t his fault,” according to Infante.
Hendrix put his speed at between 35 and 45 mph at the time of the crash, admitting to passing another car beforehand because it “was driving like Miss Daisy,” Infante said.
The detective said Hendrix also acknowledged that “he smoked a lot of weed” — police found 2.6 grams on him that day — but claimed his last hit was before 8 a.m.
But according to Gill, the DA investigator, several of the children said during their interviews that they saw Hendrix go off with another man and a woman while at the library that afternoon, and when he came back he “looked dizzy,” his eyes “tired and red.”
Another officer, Davis police Cpl. Michael Moore, testified that he smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the Ford at the crash site and that Hendrix displayed possible signs of methamphetamine intoxication, though he did not perform a full drug evaluation due to the chaotic scene.
Hendrix’s preliminary hearing resumes on Aug. 15. Should the case go to trial, one of the issues to be sorted out is the relevance of Hendrix’s domestic violence conviction to his current case.
Prosecutor Amanda Zambor contends it goes to Hendrix’s state of mind, that a potential 13-year state prison sentence and his girlfriend’s testimony in that case angered him and triggered his aggressive driving on the day of the crash.
Defense attorney Teal Dixon disagreed, saying there’s no telling how much prison time Hendrix would have received — the sentencing had been set for April — or whether the conviction was even on his mind prior to the collision.
Judge Paul Richardson sided with Dixon last week, calling the connection “highly speculative,” but ruled without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can raise the matter again at a later date.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene