Muldrow Teen Walks Again, Testifies Against Woman Accused Of Leaving Him To Die

A young man who fought his way back from life-threatening injuries from an ATV crash testified in court today against he woman accused of leaving him at the scene.

Wednesday, August 19th 2015, 6:44 pm



A young man who fought his way back from life-threatening injuries from an ATV crash testified in court today against the woman accused of leaving him at the scene.

It took prosecutors nearly a year to file charges in the case and almost two years for it to come to trial.

Prosecutors say Christian Mayberry essentially was left for dead after an ATV crash two years ago. Doctors told the family Christian likely would never talk again and certainly would never walk, but today he did both in front of a jury.

With the help of two Sequoyah County deputies, Mayberry walked into a courtroom to tell a jury about the night two years ago that changed his life forever.

Mayberry is living with a traumatic brain injury, but says he remembers what happened.

Mayberry was 16 and spending time with a new group of friends the night of the wreck. Angie Gray, the mother of one of those friends, is accused of driving the ATV drunk, crashing, then leaving the scene and lying to investigators.

He told the jury he was riding in the passenger seat of a Ranger Polaris driven by Angie Gray. He said the ATV went off the road, slammed down and threw him out. He said his head hit the ground.

"I just rolled,” he said. “My eyes didn't see everything."

He said he heard Gray say to her son and another teenager that they needed to leave before the police showed up.

418/2014: Related Story: Arrests Made In ATV Crash That Nearly Killed Oklahoma Teen

Prosecutors say Mayberry was left for three hours to lie in a ditch, bloody and severely injured, before an ambulance was called. The state says Gray used that time to come up with a story and hide beer.

Gray denies that, but admitted to the jury she had about seven beers that night. Mayberry's mother said doctors tested her son the night of the accident and found no alcohol in his system.

She said Mayberry was the driver, not her and that when she went to call for help her phone, automatically dialed her then 17-year-old son, Joey, and after that she said her phone "petered out."

About Gray’s son, Mayberry told the jury: “I thought he was a friend, but he was an actor, pretty much.”

Gray admitted leaving the scene, saying she went to find help. She claimed other witnesses lied under oath and there's no way Mayberry could have heard any conversation she had after the accident.

3/19/2014 Related Story: Green Country Teen Beating Odds After ATV Crash

When asked about Mayberry's injuries, she said with little emotion: "Can't even describe it. Awful, that's not even a strong enough word."

The trooper who worked the crash testified when he got to the scene, the ATV already had been moved and Mayberry was gone.

Throughout the entire process, Mayberry’s family has been embedded in faith.

When the defense asked Christian where he went after the accident he said, "I came back to Earth from heaven."


The family says the hospital tested Mayberry's blood for alcohol the night of the crash. The test came back negative, they say. Mayberry testified he was offered beer and that he grabbed it, but didn't open it because he thought it was "stupid and wrong."


Mayberry spent more than half a year in a Tulsa hospital, then had to hop around between rehab and nursing homes, spent a year at a facility in Florida and will be receiving care at a brain center in Dallas next.

The trial will pick back up Thursday morning with closing arguments and then it will go to the jury.

 

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