LAKEPORT ? Mark Weber testified Friday in the trial of Bismarck Dinius that he drank at Richmond Park Bar and Grill and he knew there were beer cans in the sailboat after the collision April 26, 2009.
“People were throwing ”em in there like a trash can,” Weber said.
Dinius was at the tiller of Weber”s sailboat when Capt. Russell Perdock of the Lake County Sheriff Office collided with the vessel with his speedboat. Perdock was off-duty at the time of the crash. Sailboat passenger and Weber”s girlfriend at the time, Lynn Thornton, died as a result of the collision.
Weber has known Dinius for eight or more years and competed with him in the Konocti Cup on the day of the crash, he said.
The sailboat left the dock about dusk, after Weber switched on the lights and checked them, he said.
“We”ve got lights,” Weber said. “Let”s go.”
Dinius wouldn”t have been able to see where the toggle light switches were from the tiller because they were around the corner, Weber said. Weber didn”t ask Dinius to turn the lights on or off. Thornton asked Weber to fix the radio, leaving Dinius and other people near the cockpit, Weber said.
Weber didn”t remember the collision or what happened until people were on the boat after the crash, he said.
After the boats were towed to shore Weber learned that Perdock crashed into him and yelled expletives at him, Weber testified. Thornton was getting medical care on a picnic table nearby.
Dinius arrived a few minutes late to the trial with a green tinge to his skin. He told his attorneys he felt ill. He is charged with felony boating under the influence and two misdemeanor boating under the influence charges that carry a three-year sentence.
William Chilcott, a forensic engineer who works with accident reconstruction, took the stand as the first witness and defense expert. He didn”t think Dinius was at fault for the collision partly because he didn”t own the boat and the powerboat overtook the sailboat.
The overtaking rule only applies to boats that can see each other, Chilcott said during cross-examination from District Attorney Jon Hopkins.
Chilcott disagreed with a few of the prosecution”s witnesses, he testified. He thinks the stern light was on momentarily before the filament inside broke.
He didn”t think cuts in the sailboat mast were from the propeller, as Richard Snyder a safety consultant and Lt. Charles Slabaugh of Sacramento County Sheriff had testified. Chilcott thinks the marks happened after the crash when people were moving the sailboats and its parts, otherwise the speedboat would have to have been traveling at the exact angle as the mast, an “astronomical” probability, he said.
The trial will continue 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Lake County Superior Court at 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.
Contact Katy Sweeny at ksweeny@record-bee.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
