RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) - Opening arguments have begun in the Long Island trial of a driver accused of plowing into a group of Boy Scouts, killing one of them, after pounding back vodka during a morning round of golf.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said Thomas Murphy was driving drunk and reckless from the golf course on Sept. 30, 2018 when his Mercedes fatally struck 12-year-old Andrew McMorris and injured four other scouts as they walked along the shoulder of a Manorville road.
Prosecutors say Murphy refused a breathalyzer test but toxicologists estimate his blood-alcohol contest was more than twice the legal limit.
The defense claims Murphy was not drunk and that the boys were walking in the middle of the road.
Murphy has pleaded not guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide, assault and driving while intoxicated.
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