ST. LOUIS — Emotional and powerful testimony filled the Carnahan Courthouse on Tuesday as the trial against Daniel Riley officially began.
Riley is the driver accused of critically injuring Tennessee teen Janae Edmondson while visiting St. Louis in February 2023 for a volleyball tournament at the Dome.
Right after playing a volleyball game, Janae was walking back to the hotel with her parents when police said Riley sped through a yield sign downtown, struck another car and then pinned Janae against a parked car. The crash cost the 17-year-old both of her legs.
Riley was charged with armed criminal action, driving without a license and multiple counts of assault in connection to the crash.
"At that time, I heard Janae screaming, I looked down at her, she was yelling, 'Dad I can't feel my legs, I can't feel my legs,'" Janae's father, James Edmondson, said in court Monday, recounting the night of the crash.
Both the prosecution and the defense gave their opening statements Tuesday.
The defense focused its opening statements on the other driver. Riley's lawyer, Daniel Diemer, told jurors from the moment police got to the scene, they focused solely on Riley and not the other driver who T-boned him. The defense team argued the police had an emotional response to seeing Janae.
During the prosecution's opening statements, they honed in on Riley's recklessness in the crash. The prosecution team said this was not an accident, but instead a "disregard for human life." They also showed jurors photos of Janae before and after the crash.
Prosecutors claimed that at the hospital, Riley said, "A girl lost her legs, that's all. Is something serious going to happen?"
James was the first to take the stand and told jurors the sound of Riley's car crashing into his daughter sounded "like a grenade."
He said his military training took over when Janae was hit and that he was able to save his daughter's life by stopping the bleeding using a stranger's belt as a tourniquet.
"My mind actually went from father mode to military, and when I looked down and saw her leg was severed and I knew she had seconds, not minutes, my mind just kind of blocked everything out," he said, "and it was like God just had control of my hands at that time."
During James' testimony, he told the jurors he wasn't sure if his daughter would survive.
"(The doctor) looked at me and said, 'You saved her life,' and that was pretty, pretty tough for me," the father said. "If we hadn't done what we did, she would have, this would have been a homicide we're talking about and not an injury."
Jurors also heard from the other driver involved in the crash, a witness and responding officers. About a dozen friends and family members showed up to support Riley on Tuesday.
Janae was not in court Tuesday but is scheduled to be the last person to take the stand for the prosecution.
The trial is expected to last through the week.
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