By Liz Adkins
InkFreeNews
Kevin M. Kelley
WARSAW — Nine witnesses testified during the second day of a three-day jury trial for an Indianapolis man criminally charged for a fatal boating accident on Lake Wawasee.
Kevin M. Kelley, 66, Indianapolis, is charged with reckless homicide, a level 5 felony.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dan Hampton continued the state’s case on Wednesday, June 12, with a third witness, Bret Boram, who was best friends with Nathaniel C. Mroz since seventh grade. Mroz, 20, passed away in the boating accident.
Similar to previous testimony from Brenden Klenke and Jake Gillay, Boram said he and his group of friends played drinking games and golf together during the night of Aug. 7, 2020; and morning of Aug. 8, 2020. Boram said he was hungover and did very little drinking on Aug. 8, 2020.
During the two tubing sessions on Aug. 8, Boram said he acted as a spotter for most of the day and only tubed once. With the first tubing session involving Nathan Shuey as the driver, Boram described Shuey as a responsible boat captain who made sure the tubers were raising their hands. Shuey is Kelley’s stepson and Boram’s best friend.
During the second tubing session on the pontoon, Boram said a man witnesses have called “Frankie” started out driving, with Kelley taking over at some point. Gillay, Klenke, and Mroz were the tubers.
Boram testified that when the group tubed in Johnson Bay on Lake Wawasee, Kelley was “driving very aggressively, making sharp turns and speeding higher than what Frankie was.”
When asked if he felt that tubing session was dangerous at any point in time, Boram answered affirmatively. Prior to Mroz being hit by the pontoon Kelley was driving, Boram said he remembered saying Gillay, Klenke, and Mroz fell from their tubes, alerting Kelley to pick them up.
Boram recalled seeing Gillay and Klenke in the water, but not Mroz. He did not remember anyone on the boat saying anything prior to Mroz being hit.
Boram said he helped Gillay pull Mroz onto the boat after he was hit and assisted in applying pressure to his wounds. He also helped move vehicles at the lake house to allow ambulances easier access to where they needed to go.
In further testimony, Boram said the lake’s conditions were pretty choppy throughout the day and could not recall any music being played from the boat.
In cross-examination, Defense Attorney David Deal asked Boram if he felt it was unsafe for the group to be tubing due to the water’s conditions. Boram said he did not think so.
He stated that it was his job to call out where the tubers were in the water and that he lost track of Mroz, but that the water’s conditions did not affect that.
Boram said with tubing, it’s the boat driver’s goal to retrieve fallen tubers as quickly as possible. He testified that he could not state the exact speed Kelley was traveling at when going to pick up tubers.
“If you couldn’t see (Nate Mroz) and others on the boat couldn’t see him, how was Kevin supposed to see him?” asked Deal.
Boram said he didn’t know.
When asked if it was accurate to state Mroz was hit by the pontoon because his hands were not up, Boram said it was. In re-direct, he did say it was possible that Mroz could have had his hands up when he was near the front of the boat.
Boram said “everyone was a wreck” after the accident, including Kelley, who he described as “distraught.”
The state’s fourth witness was Quinn Hunter, operations chief at Turkey Creek Fire Territory. Hunter was a paramedic who responded to the scene.
He estimated TCFT’s response time to the location was around five to seven minutes, noting CPR on Mroz was in progress by the time personnel arrived.
Hunter testified that trauma CPR was utilized on Mroz.
After about 20 to 25 minutes of resuscitation efforts, Hunter said Mroz was pronounced deceased.
Hunter described Mroz’s injuries as “catastrophic,” with the injuries including large lacerations to Mroz’s legs and right thorax, as well as a severe head injury hidden within Mroz’s hairline.
The state’s fifth witness was Lamar Helmuth, a crime scene investigator with the Indiana State Police. Multiple pictures of the pontoon boat which hit Mroz were submitted as evidence, including pictures of bloodstains on the back of the boat and bloodied towels.
Helmuth said he did not collect any DNA from the scene. When asked about a palm print on the underside of the pontoon’s center hull, Helmuth said detailing on the print was not very good.
Chris Francis, who was a Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office deputy and public information officer the day of the accident, responded to the scene. In his testimony, he said he spent the majority of his time next to a pier at the lake house and spoke with individuals who were on the pontoon to make sure they were okay. Francis also said he made sure the pontoon stayed secure and remained on scene until DNR officers arrived.
Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Kreg Kuhn testified about responding to the scene and interviewing both Klenke and Gillay, describing both as “very shook up, distraught, and emotional.”
Kuhn’s body camera footage of these interviews was played for the jury. In his brief interview, Klenke said Mroz’s hands were in the air when he fell off his inner tube and heard Mroz say, “I’m over here.”
In cross-examination, Defense Attorney Mary Zahn asked Kuhn if he made statements to Kelley about understanding how the accident could have happened and that the incident was indeed an accident.
Kuhn said he did make those statements. He also said he never made any direct statement to Conservation Officer Jordan Boggs, the lead investigator in the Kelley case, about any alleged criminal activity.
In re-direct, Hampton asked Kuhn about his statements to Kelley. He said he understood how the accident could have happened in reference to three tubers being on two inner tubes. Kuhn also testified that everyone’s emotions were heightened at the scene and that he was trying to be friendly.
Tracy Wilson, who served as a deputy coroner in August 2020, said she worked with Deputy Coroners Mike Wilson and Larry Ladd in bringing Mroz’s body to the coroner’s office and taking pictures of his injuries.
Wilson said Mroz sustained significant lacerations to his upper right chest, right knee, and the right side of his head. One of Mroz’s head injuries was described as “significantly deep.”
Photos of Mroz’s injuries were shown to the jury. Wilson testified that with Mroz’s injuries, “death would have occurred pretty quickly.”
The state’s last witness for the day was Boggs, who spoke with Kelley at the scene and also took Kelley to a local hospital for a blood draw. Boggs also took responsibility for securing the pontoon boat used during the accident.
In his testimony, Boggs said Kelley’s toxicology report showed no alcohol or drugs in Kelley’s system at the time of the accident.
Deal asked Boggs if he could say anything about the boat’s speed, angle, or general visibility during the time of the accident. Boggs said he could not.
Boggs was also asked about a black box on the boat. A black box is data kept on a boat’s motor to measure and record speed. He said he did not know if there was a black box on the boat.
Boggs also testified that he never recommended Kelley be charged with reckless homicide and didn’t believe he had a criminal investigation on his hands on Aug. 8, 2020. He also noted he did not file any boating infractions or citations against Kelley.
The trial will continue in Kosciusko Circuit Court at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 13, with Hampton continuing his case on behalf of the State of Indiana.
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