A Clarion County jury has found a 26-year-old Mercer County man not guilty on all charges stemming from a crash more than three years ago that left two men dead and two other men, including the driver, injured.
Joseph Michael Flynn, of Clark, was found not guilty by a jury of five men and seven women after two hours and 22 minutes of deliberation on Thursday, which ended a trial that began Monday.
Flynn had faced a lengthy list of charges, the most serious of which were two counts of vehicular homicide by DUI.
Three men were ejected from the vehicle during the crash, but Flynn was not among those ejected.
Mark Matthew Marcucci, of West Middlesex, died at the scene; Kevin Scott Yarabinec, of Sharpsville, who was flown by emergency helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, succumbed to blunt force trauma wounds on April 15, 2018. Cody Alan Hughes, who also suffered injuries, survived the crash.
The prosecution argued Flynn’s statements at the time of the crash, Flynn’s actions after Yarabinec’s death and witness testimony combined to prove Flynn guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mona Weaver, the paramedic who treated Flynn at the scene, testified Flynn had admitted to her that he had been driving.
“He kept saying, ‘I don’t want to die,'” Weaver said. “Then he said, ‘I don’t want to go to jail because I was drunk and I was driving.'”
Sherrie Hughes, the mother of Cody Alan Hughes, and Sharon Marcucci, the mother of Mark Matthew Marcucci, also testified for the prosecution.
Both women testified Flynn had admitted his guilt to them prior to the death of Yarabinec.
“He came to me on his own,” Sharon Marcucci said. “Crying, sobbing, telling me how sorry he was. Telling me it was his fault, that he should have never been drinking.”
Sharon Marcucci also testified she asked Flynn if he was injured from the crash, to which he responded his chest hurt the most as the steering column of his truck struck him there.
Her testimony was contradicted by the defense, specifically Joseph Michael Flynn’s father, Tom.
Tom Flynn testified he, his son and others visited the Marcuccis as Sharon Marcucci had said.
However, he denied his son admitted guilt to her or that he said the steering wheel struck him during the crash.
Tom Flynn, however, could not say with whom his son spoke during the visit.
“I’m 100% sure he never said anything about the steering wheel,” Tom Flynn testified. “I don’t know who he talked to then. I was standing with him 100% of the time. She’s wrong if she said that.”
Joseph Michael Flynn spoke in his own defense, but his testimony suffered from a suspect memory.
“I remember bits and pieces along the way,” he said.
Of the crash, Joseph Michael Flynn said he felt “as if a flash-bang went off.
“I was in and out of it. There was ringing in my ear and I was dazed.”
DNA evidence was collected from the truck three days after the crash. Five samples – from the driver-side airbag, the passenger-side airbag, the driver- side A-pillar, the driver-side arm rest and the center console – were tested but none came back to Joseph Michael Flynn, but instead matched Yarabinec’s DNA.
“The samples you took from the driver’s area excluded Joseph Flynn?” asked co-defense attorney Sarah Grape.
“That’s correct,” replied Amanda Kasardo, the prosecution’s DNA expert.
The trial also heard testimony from two accident reconstructionists.
State police Trooper Bob Manno, who testified for the prosecution, stated he compiled a report indicating Joseph Michael Flynn was the person driving the vehicle, based on the physical evidence.
That testimony was disputed by Robert Lynch, of Abbington-based engineering consulting firm DJS Associates, who said the defendant could not have been driving because he was not ejected from the vehicle while the driver must have been.
Joseph Michael Flynn’s injuries were also points of contention.
Photos and statements of multiple witnesses confirmed the defendant suffered the vast majority of his injuries to the right side of his face and body.
Lynch and Dr. Randy Boggess, a medical expert for the defense, both testified Joseph Michael Flynn’s injuries were incongruous with him being the driver.
“Flynn’s injuries are not consistent with him being in the driver’s seat,” Boggess said. “There are no injuries in Flynn’s midsection. You would expect to see them if he was driving.”