Judge: Alcohol charges stand

HOLLIDAYSBURG - Alcohol-related charges against a Hollidaysburg man accused of vehicular homicide remain intact after being reviewed by a Blair County judge.

Prosecutors provided enough evidence to support the charges against Martin Bruce Wimer, Judge Hiram Carpenter stated in a ruling filed Monday.

The case against Wimer will keep moving toward a jury trial in 2010.

Wimer, 50, is accused of being under the influence of alcohol during a Sept. 27, 2008, crash on Frankstown Road that killed Judy Wills, 67, of Flinton, who was on her way to visit grandchildren.

Wimer's attorney, James R. Huff II, challenged the alcohol-related charges by pointing out that prosecutors failed to enter blood-alcohol test results at a March 4 preliminary hearing.

He initially raised that issue by telling Magisterial District Judge Paula Aigner that prosecutors offered nothing to indicate the time frame between the crash and when Wimer's blood was tested at the Altoona Regional Health System, Bon Secours Hospital Campus.

Carpenter reviewed the preliminary hearing transcript, hearing legal arguments on whether prosecutors were entitled to later present supplemental testimony. Carpenter then heard testimony Sept. 28 from state Trooper Jason Riley and from two employees involved in drawing and testing Wimer's blood-alcohol level.

The testimony at the Sept. 28 hearing supplied "the time of the accident [12 o'clock noon], the time of the blood testing [1:07 p.m., which is within two hours of the accident], the fact of the blood testing, the manner of the blood testing, the blood testing results and how that blood testing was obtained through various witnesses," the ruling stated.

"This so clearly satisfies the requirement of the prima facie level as to render further discussion unnecessary."

Wimer has been in the Blair County Prison since Nov. 17 after testing positive for alcohol. Before Nov. 17, he was free on $100,000 unsecured bail, but with a condition that he neither purchase or drink alcohol.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.