Driver of boat gives his account

Todd Spangler said he didn't whip an inner tube carrying two women into a dock at West Shores Lake.

Spangler said the women — his wife, Kim, and their close friend, Jennifer Finke-Dwyer — “skipped across the water like a rock” and didn't hit the dock until 3 to 6 seconds after they had fallen off of the tube he pulled behind his boat.

Taking the stand for his manslaughter trial in Douglas County District Court, Spangler said the women fell off well short of the dock and skimmed, barrel-rolled and flipped head-over-heels along the water. Spangler said he kept waiting for the women to stop but they continued to hurtle across the water before crashing into the dock — a crash that caused the death of Finke-Dwyer, 30.

“Every other time, they simply fall in the water or skid for 10 or 15 feet,” Spangler said. “The girls kept skidding and barrel-rolling and skimming the water like they just couldn't get in the water fast enough.”

Spangler and his attorney, James Martin Davis, offered the competing version Wednesday as they tried to establish that Finke-Dwyer's death was caused by a freak tubing accident — and not by what prosecutors allege: Spangler's drunken and reckless driving of the boat.

Spangler's wife, Kim, who was seriously injured in the crash, will testify that she fell off of the raft before hitting the dock, Davis said.

The Spanglers' version stands in stark contrast to the testimony of other passengers and a neighbor who watched the crash unfold from his back patio.

John Dwyer, Jennifer's widower, and two women on the boat testified that they watched in horror as the women held onto the tube and the tube hit the dock.

One of the women, Heidi Lichtenberg, said the two were smiling and laughing and holding on, unaware that the tube was about to whip into the dock.

From his house, neighbor Jeff Nielsen testified that he, too, could see that the tube was on course to hit the dock — so much so that he hollered for his son to call 911 before the tube even hit.

A coroner's physician testified that the collision fractured several of Finke-Dwyer's ribs and crushed her liver, causing her death. Dr. Robert Bowen said her severe internal injuries were similar to the trauma suffered by someone who had jumped off of a high-rise building.

With that testimony, the prosecution rested. And Spangler took the stand.

With slicked-down hair and wearing a three-piece suit, Spangler testified that his house, built three years ago for about $1 million, provided his family and friends with an idyllic setting on West Shores Lake in western Douglas County.

Spangler, who has a law degree and worked for a brokerage, said their home was like a little piece of paradise, a virtual “vacation” spot. The beach. A floating dock. Their 2004 Cobalt 200 motorboat, with what Spangler described as a “blue/cobalt blue stripe” down the side. Spangler acknowledged that he combined imbibing with tubing on that first day of summer last year.

In the two to three hours before the crash, Spangler said, he drank two 16-ounce glasses of Mai Tai mix and rum. He estimated that he'd had the equivalent of 6 to 8 shots of rum.

Tests later revealed his blood-alcohol content was .16, twice the legal limit for driving.

However, Spangler testified, the alcohol did not impair his judgment — or his depth perception.

He said he had driven the boat — as it towed the tube on its 50-foot rope — through that cove hundreds of times.

He said he had more than enough room as he turned the boat hard to the left to whip the women across the water.

Witnesses have testified that the women hit the dock close to the shore.

“Did your (drinking) make you any less capable of determining distances to shore or the dock?” Davis asked.

Spangler: “No.”

Davis: “Did you believe you were far enough away from shore?”

Spangler: “Wholeheartedly.”

Davis: “If those girls had not skidded off of that tube, would they have hit the dock?”

Spangler: “No. The tube would have followed the boat.”

Lichtenberg, who was watching the tube from the boat, testified that she and Spangler were having a conversation about centrifugal force when Spangler said, “Watch this.”

She said she couldn't believe that Spangler cranked the boat with the tube so close to shore.

“I remember thinking, ‘Surely he's going to see that dock there,'” she testified.

Prosecutors are expected to cross-examine Spangler when the trial resumes Thursday.

Contact the writer:

444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com

« Crime/Courts

Share