Tearful testimony from victim, suspect's mother headlines day 5 of Louisville murder trial

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Amy Jones took the stand Friday in the trial of a man charged with running over her family on a busy downtown Louisville street corner.

The murder trial for Michael Hurley continued for a fifth day Friday with Jones testifying about the fallout from the wreck in which her family was waiting at 2nd and Market streets before Hurley plowed through them without braking.

Trey Jones, 42, died shortly after being hit. His wife, Amy, and daughter, Ava, were seriously hurt and were in town for weeks in rehab in Louisville. Another child was slightly injured. The family, from Kansas, was in Louisville for a basketball tournament Ava was playing in.

Like her daughter Thursday, Amy Jones said Friday she doesn't remember the wreck. But the courtroom were shown last picture she took minutes before that crash, the family happy and healthy together.

She told the jury she had 22 broken bones and 18 surgeries. Prosecutors asked Amy Jones to stand up and show the jury the deformities to her legs and arms from that crash. Because of those deformities and injuries, she can no longer play ball with her young, active son.

"No, not if it requires anything you have to move for. I can't throw a football with him ..." she said, her voice trailing off through tears.

Now, Amy Jones said she lives with several scars, pain in her shoulder and a permanent metal rod in her leg. She also was in a coma for two weeks before waking up to a daughter who she said will never be the same because of her traumatic brain injury.

"I would equate Amy's injury to something Evel Knievel might have had back in the day," Dr. Darryl Kaelin, medical director of the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, said in 2022. "The amount of trauma that this family — and, in particular, Ava and Amy — have experienced is horrific."

Kaelin said Amy Jones had multiple fractures to her spine, shoulder, shoulder blade, rib cage, pelvis, right thigh and both shins. Ava Jones had several fractures as well and a head injury "a little more significant than her mom's," Kaelin said.

Pamela Hurley, who hasn't seen her son, Michael, since the day of the crash, also testified for 30 minutes Friday. Hurley's attorney, Jordan Potts, said earlier this week Hurley was tired from working all day and took hydrocodone after a dentist appointment. Pamela Hurley's testimony Friday became tense as she talked about the pills her son is accused of taking before getting behind the wheel. She said he'd been prescribed hydrocodone after seeing a dentist for a tooth infection. She said she tried to keep the pill bottles stored in a safe and gave them to her son as prescribed.

"I can't help what the dentist prescribes," she testified. "... I didn't want to have it in front of him to take the bottle or do something because he was a man at that age." 

'I am a lot more sad'

On Thursday, tears streamed down 19-year-old Ava Jones' face as she told a jury she can no longer shoot a basketball or even walk very far after the crash.

Trey Jones, 42, died shortly after being hit of a catastrophic brain injury. His wife, Amy, and daughter, Ava, were seriously hurt and were in town for weeks in rehab in Louisville. Another child was slightly injured. The family, from Kansas, was in Louisville for a basketball tournament Ava was playing in.

The Jones family was in town for the national "Run 4 Roses' AAU basketball tournament at the Kentucky Exposition Center, exploring a new city days after Jones fulfilled a lifelong dream. She was offered scholarships in three sports "and was very good at them" but — two days before the crash — committed to play basketball at the University of Iowa. Now, she said "it takes me about 20 second to write my name." Once a valedictorian, her memory is so bad that she does not recollect what was said in her classes at Iowa minutes after they have ended.

This has affected her relationship with other students as well.

"My recollection of what they said affects my ability to have friends," Jones testified, also noting she is in treatment for depression. She does not remember the wreck or even much of her stay in the hospital. It took her two years to relearn how to speak properly. She has double vision and multiple surgeries have left her in constant pain.

"I have a lot less friends," said Jones, who is a sophomore. "I am a lot more sad." 

Her potential to hold down a job is "not good," she said. "You have to be able to remember what you are doing, and I can't remember."

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Scott Drabestadt said she can't even shoot a basketball with her injuries now, including a traumatic brain injury, and her life "will never be the same."

"She is a lonely college student trying to get through life now because of his decisions," he said.

'Wasted out of his mind'

Drabestadt told jurors earlier this week that Hurley had "nothing but selfishness and wanton disregard for the safety of others" when he drove his vehicle with blood levels showing he had five times above what is considered a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system.

Hurley didn't stop for 100 feet after he hit the Jones family with his car at 2nd and Market streets on July 5, 2022.

"He didn't even begin to brake until well after he plowed into the Jones family," Drabestadt said in his opening statements, shortly after a jury was chosen. "That's how wasted and out of his mind he was."

But Potts has said that while "there is no denying" what happened was a "tragedy," it was an accident as Hurley was tired from working all day and "not as intoxicated" as prosecutors say.

Potts said there is clearly a problem with the blood results as there is no way Hurley could have that much fentanyl in his system and still talk to police officers at the scene and do as well as he did in the field sobriety test.

"The blood (test) doesn't make sense," Potts told jurors.

A police officer testified that Hurley failed the field sobriety test. After he was arrested, Hurley told police he would be fired from his job if he missed work the next day, according to body camera footage.

Potts said Hurley had taken hydrocodone for pain from a dental procedure but the wreck was due to his client getting up at 3:30 a.m. for work that day.

"This was someone who was tired," Potts told jurors. "At no point did Mr. Hurley ever wish for anything like this to happen."

Hurley said he was driving to inquire about a job when he realized he was too late and tried to quickly make a turn "but went straight, instead," veering off the road and running over the family, according to police body camera footage played in court.

While prosecutors said Hurley nodded off at the scene of the wreck, Hurley claimed he was praying.

Some people in the courtroom gasped Tuesday when a surveillance video of the wreck was played for the jury. Police body camera footage showed the aftermath of the wreck, with the family bloodied and spread out while people tried to help them.

Hurley is charged with murder, multiple counts of assault and driving under the influence. He is facing up to 70 years in prison.

Related Stories:

• Teen basketball star testifies she struggles to walk now after Louisville man ran over her family
• Louisville man took 5 times the fatal level of fentanyl before he ran over Kansas family, prosecutor says
• Kansas teen hit by car in Louisville retires from basketball, will focus on degree at Iowa
• Kansas family reflects on a year of loss and healing after being hit by car in downtown Louisville

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