33-year-old Paul Grove Jr. is on trial this week for aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault for the 2017 crash that killed 54-year-old Jeanene Indermill and injured two others. (Stacey Carmany, Tusco TV)

NEW PHILADELPHIA (Tusco TV) - The state is beginning to lay out its case against a former Baltic man on trial for aggravated vehicular assault, OVI and aggravated vehicular homicide for the 2017 crash that killed a 54-year-old New Philadelphia woman and injured two others. 

33-year-old Paul Grove Jr. is accused of driving his Chevy Trailblazer over the double yellow line on Crooked Run Road on the evening of June 24th, striking two eastbound motorcycles after he had been drinking. Assistant County Prosecutor Amanda Miller says Jeanene Indermill was thrown from the back of her husband’s motorcycle during that crash and passed away within hours.

"Jeanene was propelled off the back of the motorcycle. The entire seat that she was sitting on was separated from the bike, and she was propelled into the air and hit the ground. Jeanene never regained consciousness, and she died two hours later in Akron," she says.

Miller says jurors during the trial will hear from the two surviving victims, Matthew Indermill and Mark Preston. She says they’ll hear how Indermill was trapped under his bike when it burst into flames.

"You’ll hear testimony that the flames were 20 feet high when he was at the bottom of it because he was covered in gas," she says.

Miller says jurors will also hear how Preston crawled for more than 50 feet with a shattered ankle trying to get to him. Both men are expected to testify tomorrow. 

Jurors on Wednesday heard from state troopers Jeremy Grubb and Matthew Clapper, who responded to the scene of the accident. Grubb said they found open 30 pack of Bush Light Grove's SUV, along with several empty cans and an open beer in a cozy on the backseat. Clapper said Grove’s breathalyzer test was more than one-and-a-half times the legal limit. 

Grove’s attorney, Amanda Spies, in her 90-second opening statement urged jurors to listen carefully and consider all of the facts because she said not all of the witnesses would be telling them the truth. 

Grove was sentenced to 18 years in prison last November after he pled guilty to the same charges. The Fifth District Court of Appeals overturned his conviction earlier this year because he was not informed that the vehicular homicide charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence.  

TUSCO TV