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Trial set for December for Nikole Smock
By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER
Era Reporter
marcie@bradfordera.com
A week in December has been set aside in McKean County Court in Smethport for the trial of Nikole Smock, charged in an accident in December that led to the death of college student Alissa Cameron.
Jury selection is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 8, with the trial to begin immediately thereafter. It is scheduled through Dec. 12. Senior Judge Richard N. Saxton of Clinton County is scheduled to hear the case.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. Nov. 10 before Saxton.
Smock, 19, of East Main Street, is charged with accidents involving death, failing to stop and render aid, reckless driving and failing to back up a vehicle properly.
The charges arose from an incident in the early morning hours of Dec. 30 in the parking lot of Northwest Savings Bank, which is adjacent to the rear of the Option House, which had been a bar at the time.
A Pontiac Aztec driven by Smock, in which her boyfriend Zachery Coon was a passenger, struck Cameron in the parking lot and left the scene without stopping. According to testimony at preliminary hearings for Smock and Coon, Smock believed she may have struck Cameron, but was told by Coon to leave the scene because he was underage, had previous criminal charges and had been drinking.
Coon is scheduled to stand trial beginning Nov. 17.
Cameron died Jan. 5 in an Erie hospital from her injuries.
After a previous hearing in the case against Smock, President Judge John Yoder ruled that a confession Smock made to police in the early morning hours after the accident can be used against her at trial.
The lead investigator in the case, Bradford City Police Officer Hiel Bartlett, explained at Smock’s preliminary hearing that Smock had admitted to being the driver of the vehicle, said Cameron was outside the vehicle and was very upset, hitting the window. Smock put the vehicle in reverse and, while Cameron was hitting the vehicle and trying to open the door, she backed out of a parking space and then continued forward toward the Pine Street exit of the lot.
At one point, Smock no longer saw Cameron and then felt a bump, Bartlett said. She pulled the vehicle over on Pine Street and asked Coon if he felt the bump, but he didn’t reply and urged her to leave the scene, Bartlett said.
Smock told police she thought Cameron may have fallen. Smock’s attorney, Patricia Ambrose of Erie, said Smock did not know that she had hit Cameron. District Attorney John Pavlock said a jury should decide that.
Smock remains free on $50,000 bail.
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