Trial in crash death starts

Joshua Braswell was in court Tuesday morning for first arguments in the case against him for vehicular manslaughter. Braswell was allegedly racing a car on 441 and crashed into a tractor trailer killing the passenger, Joseph Nannariello. (Uma Sanghvi/The Post)

By LARRY KELLER | Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — On this there is no dispute: Joshua Braswell was driving on a very dark road just before he crashed into the rear of a semi-truck, killing his passenger, his friend.

What is in dispute in his vehicular manslaughter trial is who was responsible for the Oct. 30, 2006, crash that killed Joseph Nannariello, 19, of Royal Palm Beach.

Assistant State Attorney Adam McMichael told jurors Tuesday in his opening statement that Braswell, driving at “a gross, extreme rate of speed” that reached 90 mph, was responsible.

Not so, argued Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence. Evidence will show it was the truck driver, not Braswell, who “caused this very tragic accident,” she said.

Braswell, 21, of Greenacres, and young men in at least two other cars were driving south on U.S. 441 to meet at a spot in Boca Raton. At the same time, the driver of a semi-truck, transporting 30,000 pounds of okra, was driving north on the road. The trucker, Samuel Gervais, then made a U-turn in a designated U-turn lane north of Boynton Beach Boulevard, both attorneys said.

Braswell – driving 90 mph or 6130 feet per second in a Honda CRX – rear-ended the truck, McMichael said. There was 4 feet of “crush damage” to his car, he said.

Lawrence said there are conflicting estimates as to how fast Braswell was driving that night.

Witness Henry Garza points to defendent Joshua Braswell in court Tuesday morning. Braswell was in court for first arguments in the case against him for vehicular manslaughter. Braswell was allegedly racing a car on 441 and crashed into a tractor trailer killing the passenger, Joseph Nannariello. Garza was an acquaintance of Braswell’s and witnessed the crash from a separate car, behind the one Braswell was driving. (Uma Sanghvi/The Post)

The first witness McMichael called Tuesday was Henry Garza, 23, one of the men heading to the Boca meeting spot that night. He said he saw Braswell zoom past the car in which he was a passenger. A short time later, they came upon the Honda smashed into the back of the semi-truck.

Garza said he couldn’t see Braswell because the driver’s side of the Honda was under the truck. Nannariello, the passenger, “was lying on his back with his feet up on the dash.” He was unconscious.

Gervais, the truck driver, felt only a bump, was unhurt and called 911, the lawyers said.

~ by ww on April 2, 2008.