First Responders Describe `Horrific` Crash at Conn. Trial
Feb. 25--The inside of Marcus Harvin's car smelled like a mix of alcoholic beverages and blood, and two little girls trapped inside their father's Acura, which had landed upside down in a Gales Ferry swimming pool in May of 2014, were screaming for help.
Ledyard Police officers Jason Pudvah and Daniel Gagnon thought of their own children as they took off their gun belts and got into the pool to rescue the car's occupants, according to their testimony Wednesday at Harvin's trial in New London Superior Court.
"First and foremost, I'm a father, and wanted to make sure the kids were safe," Gagnon testified.
On the second day of Harvin's trial in New London Superior Court, police officers from three jurisidictions along with paramedics and emergency medical technicians described the "horrific" crash scene under questioning by prosecutors Sarah W. Bowman and Grayson Colt Holmes. Harvin, 27, of New Britain, is accused of fleeing from police while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and causing the horrific crash. He is charged with ten crimes, including second-degree assault, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and driving under the influence, and could be sentenced to up to 38 years if convicted.
The jury of three men, three women, and two alternates viewed photographs of the crash scene. Despite the objections of Harvin, who is representing himself with assistance from attorney John Williams, the jurors also saw pictures of two-year-old Maya Harvin's severely injured arm and a photo of the metal car part that almost severed her arm.
Harvin's "baby," as he described her in court, was strapped in her carseat and suspended upside down with her right arm dangling, when the two Ledyard officers broke a window to gain access to the car, which was taking on water from the pool.
"I was able to hold her up by her chest and cut the straps of the car seat," Gagnon said. The child's injury, he said, was "about as close to a full amputation as you could get."
"I was honestly afraid I was going to knock off her arm. That's how little skin there was holding her arm on," he testified.
Gagnon handed the child to Pudvah, who said he placed her on his left knee and tucked her arm around his back before carrying her up the embankment.
"I didn't want her to move it," he said. "I tucked it out of her sight."
Harvin was trapped in the front of the car, partially suspended. His other daughter, four-year-old Mariah Harvin, was sitting on his chest to stay out of the water. She crawled over her father and into Gagnon's arms, he said. Harvin asked Gagnon to come into the car and rescue him, but Gagnon said he questioned whether he would fit in the car widow and decided to let Harvin use his knife to cut himself out.
Harvin cut himself free and crawled out the window, where he was patted down and led away by other officers.
Minutes before the crash, Pudvah, responding to a 911 call about a possible drunk driver, said he came upon Harvin asleep at the wheel in the parking lot of the Henny Penny on Route 1. Pudvah said Harvin gave him the wrong name -- Dante Harvin -- and started his car and drove off after Pudvah went to his cruiser to check on Harvin's identity. Pudvah said he initially used his lights and sirens and pursued Harvin at speeds of 55 to 60 miles an hour. He said that out of concern for the children, he stopped chasing Harvin, who had pulled way ahead of him and was passing cars as he drove south.
Later, at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, Pudvah said Harvin told him he took off because he "had nothing to lose." Harvin was on probation at the time for a drunken driving conviction, according to court records.
Patrolman Richard Carleson of the Groton Town Police Department testified he was about three miles away on Route 12 and was preparing to lay out "stop sticks" to stop the fleeing car when he heard a report of a "Code 19B," an accident with injuries, over the radio. At the scene, one of the officers handed the older child to Carleson and he took the shaken little girl to wait for an ambulance. She could stand, Carleson said, but she wanted to be held, so he let her lean on him. He didn't notice right away, but she was bleeding from a foot injury and he had blood "all over the side of my pant leg."
"She kept asking for mommy," Carleson said. "I said, 'Where's mommy at? She said she was on vacation."
State trooper Christipher Hubbard, driving to the scene from his patrol position near the Gold Star Bridge, said he patted down Harvin, who appeared highly intoxicated, and found a small bag of marijuana in his pocket. Later, at the hospital, Hubbard said he stood outside an exam room while hospital staff talked to Harvin.
"It didn't have much interaction with him," Hubbard testified. "He seemed visibly upset with his actions, with what he had done."
Back at the crash scene, Sgt. Keith Ashbey of the Groton Town Police Department said Harvin asked a lot of questions about his daughters as medical staff began to work on the children. Ashbey said Harvin asked him if they would be able to save his daughter's arm.
"I said I didn't know," Ashbey testified.
When the trial resumes Thursday, a doctor who treated the child at Yale-New Haven Hospital is expected to testify.
k.florin@theday.com
Twitter: @KFLORIN
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