Judge rules for defendant on hospital statements

LEWISTON – A District Court judge has ruled that an Auburn youth’s admission to emergency room workers that he had been drag racing when the passenger in his car was killed can’t be used against him at his manslaughter trial.

But Judge Paul Cote also ruled last week that prosecutors may use statements made by Kyle Karkos at the hospital to rebut evidence offered by his attorneys.

Cote said the statements offered by Karkos were likely answers to questions posed by the medical workers attending to him. They were made in confidence for the “purpose of diagnosis or treatment of the juvenile’s physical condition,” Cote wrote.

According to the Sun Journal newspaper of Lewiston, a local police officer overheard the then-17-year-old tell emergency room workers that he had been drag racing and that he wasn’t going to lose the race. He said he had gone through a couple of traffic lights and lost control of his car, which hit a pole.

Because of bits of glass lodged in his eyes, Karkos apparently didn’t recognize Officer Kristopher Murphy in the room, Cote wrote in his ruling.

In addition to the glass in his eyes, Karkos also suffered broken bones in his arm, a chipped vertebra in his back, and “whiplash” injuries stemming from the crash on April 5, 2006, Cote wrote.

The Canal Street crash killed Kenny Jellison Jr., 18, of Auburn at the scene.

Karkos was charged in December with manslaughter, reckless conduct and driving to endanger. He is being tried as a juvenile because he was 17 at the time of the crash.

An October trial is scheduled.