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Charges bound to court in accident resulting in death
By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER
Era Reporter
Both charges against the Bradford man accused of soliciting another to leave the scene of an accident that resulted in a woman’s death in December were bound to court after a hearing Wednesday afternoon before District Judge Dom Cercone.
Zackery Coon, 20, of 94 Pleasant St., is charged with soliciting an accident involving death, a third-degree felony; and underage drinking, a summary offense.
The charges arose from an incident in the early morning hours of Dec. 30 in the parking lot of Northwest Savings Bank adjacent to the rear of the Option House, which was a bar at the time. A small sport utility vehicle — in which Coon was a passenger — driven by Coon’s girlfriend, Nikole Smock, struck Alissa Cameron, 20, in the parking lot. The SUV left the scene without stopping.
According to testimony, Smock believed she may have struck Cameron, but Coon told Smock to leave the scene because he was underage, had previous criminal charges and had been drinking. Smock and Coon have both been charged in the incident.
Cameron died Jan. 5 in an Erie hospital from her injuries.
The hearing, prosecuted by District Attorney John Pavlock, lasted about two hours.
Bradford City Police Officer Hiel Bartlett and Kane-based State Trooper David Smith testified. Also testifying was Amy McCoy, a friend of Alissa Cameron and her twin sister Leanna, all of whom had been at the Option House that night, according to testimony at the hearing.
Bartlett was the first to the stand, and explained how he went about gathering evidence and interviewing people in the investigation. While he was describing an accident reconstruction report, Cercone stopped the hearing, left the bench, went to the audience and asked Alissa Cameron’s father, Donald Cameron — who had been seated to the rear right of Coon next to Smock’s mother — to switch seats with another man. After the men traded seats, Cercone restarted the hearing.
Coon’s attorney, Peter Sala of Erie, objected to the inclusion of the accident reports because Bartlett was not the officer who prepared them. Pavlock said the trooper who prepared them would be available at the time of trial, and Cercone admitted the reports into evidence.
McCoy testified after Bartlett, explaining she was at the bar with Leanna Cameron when she saw Alissa Cameron there as well. Later that night, she went outside and saw Alissa Cameron standing beside a dark-colored SUV with her hand on the side of the vehicle.
McCoy went back in the bar, and was later told that Alissa Cameron had been in an accident in the parking lot. She went outside and stood with Leanna Cameron, “holding her back,” while the paramedics worked on Alissa Cameron, she explained.
She identified Coon as being the passenger in the SUV that Alissa Cameron was touching when she was outside earlier in the evening.
“You never saw the SUV move?” asked Sala.
“Correct,” McCoy said.
He also asked if Cameron was laying in the spot where the SUV had been parked; McCoy said no.
“The area where her body was, is that the way the SUV would have gone to get out of the lot?” Pavlock asked.
“Yes,” McCoy responded.
Smith was the last to testify. He explained he assisted Bartlett with the investigation, and took a voluntary statement from Coon after the incident had happened.
“I interviewed him from three-forty-five to seven in the morning,” Smith said, adding there were breaks and times when he had left the room. The trooper said he and Coon went back to the parking lot and “talked about what (Coon) thought had happened.”
“We went over a statement together,” Smith said. He read the statement that Coon had agreed was correct.
“He agreed they had probably hit (Cameron) but (Smock) didn’t know it,” Smith said. He said Coon explained Cameron was “argumentative” and “had been running alongside” the SUV, striking the windows on the passenger side, and Smock sped up to get away from her.
But then she wasn’t beside the SUV anymore.
The trooper said Coon told him Smock became frantic, thinking she had hit Cameron.
“He said just get out of here. I’m underage and I’ll get in trouble,” Smith recounted.
Smith explained that at the end of the statement, he asked Coon if there was anything else he wanted to add.
“I feel awful,” Smith said, reading Coon’s statement. “Alissa is one of my friends. I feel like Nikole is in trouble because of me. I hope Alissa is OK.”
At the end of the prosecution’s case, Sala asked Cercone to dismiss the more serious charge against his client, saying the charge of solicitation requires intent. He said the investigating officers had testified that Coon said he never felt “a bump” when the SUV ran over Cameron and that Coon thought she had fallen.
“I don’t think there was any intent on Mr. Coon’s part,” Sala said.
Pavlock disagreed.
“I hate to say this with (Cameron’s) family right here, but we’ve all run over things driving,” Pavlock said. And when something is run over, the occupants of the vehicle feel it, he argued.
“The fact that he said he didn’t feel anything is the strongest evidence there is in this case,” Pavlock said. “He encouraged (Smock) to leave that area. She’s hysterical and he’s telling her to get out of there.”
Cercone agreed with Pavlock and bound the charges over to McKean County Court.
Coon remains free on $5,000 bail.
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