A 19-year-old Casper woman did not commit a felony when she hit an elk while speeding on the highway, killing a friend in her car, a jury ruled Thursday.
The Carbon County jury acquitted Gennavieve Boomer of aggravated homicide by vehicle, which is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Instead, the jury convicted Boomer of the lesser version of that crime, negligent homicide by vehicle, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and $2,000 in fines.
It also convicted Boomer of a second misdemeanor of reckless driving, which is punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines. Lastly, Boomer was convicted of speeding, which is punishable by a fine.
Carbon County Attorney Sarah Chavez Harkins charged Boomer July 30, in a case stemming from the July 14 death of Sammantha Brooks, 18, who was ejected from a Toyota that Avalon Boomer had been driving after it reportedly hit two bull elk on Wyoming Highway 487 in Carbon County.
That was according to an evidentiary affidavit by Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Caleb Hobbs.
“We’re still, the family is still taking in the news of the verdict,” said Sammantha Brooks’ mother Sarah Hardy in a Friday phone interview. “You know, overall, we are accepting of the outcome.
“It wasn’t exactly what we wanted to see. As the mom I do feel like justice — I did get the justice I felt like I needed for my daughter.”
Trial week was “pretty crazy and rough,” she said. “We just have to accept what it is. We are happy that it’s still something, and that we can hopefully move forward and heal from here, and finally have some closure.”
Hardy said the family appreciates the love and support from the public, and “the fact our community really kind of came out for us.”
She said Casper is a good community, and good people in the justice system helped “see us through.”
Sammantha’s loss left a void in the hearts of those who knew her, Hardy told Cowboy State Daily last July.
About That Verdict
Trial in Boomer’s case opened Tuesday and ended Thursday.
The jury had all the evidence and statements as of about 2:50 p.m. Thursday, posed a question about the case at about 3:40 p.m., and announced it had reached a verdict at 5:29, Boomer’s attorney Ryan Semerad told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday interview.
He emphasized that no one can read the jurors’ minds. But the key difference between the felony charge and the negligent vehicular homicide misdemeanor is whether a person acted recklessly, or negligently, he noted.
Semerad said all Boomer's blood tests came back negative of substances and alcohol, and she was sober.
The “recklessly” element equates to consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm, whereas behaving “negligently” means the person failed to perceive that risk of harm.
Semerad said the jury’s question was a request to re-hear a recorded statement law enforcement got from Boomer, when she talked about driving on the darkened road, being scared in that area and trying to slow down — when the elk came from nowhere.
“I think they probably put that together: she was going a little fast; didn’t see the elk. But (she) didn’t consciously disregard the risk (she was) going to have this catastrophic crash,” said Semerad.
He said the “classic” aggravated vehicular homicide case involves a drunk driver who kills someone, and the driver makes a conscious choice to get drunk, which amounts to conscious disregard of the harm that could flow from that.
This case was rather, he said, “a young girl who got in a bad crash and her friend died. She was probably negligent when she did what she did, but it’s not like she made some conscious choice to do something horrible and should be held responsible in the same way we would (convict) a drunk driver.”
Boomer's sentencing will happen at a later date.
The Crash
It was around 5 a.m. July 14 when the car struck a bull elk head-on on Highway 487, causing immediate front-end damage.
Then the car veered right, skidded onto its passenger side for about 150 feet, struck a turn-off embankment, bent a delineator post backwards and hit a second bull elk with its passenger side, Hobbs concluded from the evidence.
The collision with the second elk caved in the passenger side, bent the side support beam nearly 90 degrees, ripped off the door and sent the car into multiple rolls for several feet. Ultimately the car came to rest on its roof, says the affidavit.
Boomer, then 18, was driving the car.
Sammantha Brooks was in the front passenger seat during the collision, while Sammantha’s twin sister Hannah Brooks, 18, was in the rear passenger side seat and a fourth 18-year-old, Trinity Day, was in the rear driver’s side passenger seat, wrote Hobbs.
The four teens were friends.
Hobbs wrote that they had taken a road trip together from Casper to the Saratoga hot springs before the crash. Hannah Brooks and the other two occupants survived the crash on Wyoming Highway 487, but Hannah’s twin sister Sammantha didn’t.
Two of the five seats had had their seat belts in use, the car’s internal computer data later reviewed to WHP Lt. Tyler Chapman, the document says.
Hobbs wrote that the evidence indicated the driver, Boomer, had only worn a lap belt with no shoulder strap.
“Ms. Boomer,” he added, “was only partially ejected.”
Designated Driver
In Day’s interview with investigators, she said they had all met up at about 8 p.m. July 13 and decided around midnight to go to the hot springs in Saratoga. They arrived around 3 a.m. July 14.
Hannah Brooks was tired and slept in the car’s back seat while the other three teens went into the hot springs, Day recalled.
Sammantha Brooks “had been spoking a lot of marijuana in Casper” and Day and Hannah Brooks had also been smoking, Day said, according to the document.
Because of all that smoking and the fact that Boomer had a driver’s license and neither Hannah Brooks nor Day had one, Boomer drove the others during the trip, says Hobbs’ account of Day’s interview.
On the way to Saratoga, the car had hit several rabbits and small animals on the highway.
Near where they hit the bull elk, the vehicle had to dodge what Day thought was a deer or another large animal, as the friends approached Saratoga, the document relates.
Day told investigators she’d asked Boomer to slow down between eight and 15 times.
Hannah Brooks was in the back seat, lying down.
A friend of Boomer’s had taken a screenshot from a Life360 app tracking her, showing a speed of 115 mph near the crash scene, said Day, reportedly.
Sammantha Brooks was not wearing a seat belt, the document says.
Day also said that, “she had not seen (Boomer) smoke any marijuana or drink any alcohol during their time together,” Hobbs wrote.
Sleeping For Most Of It
Hannah Brooks didn’t remember much of the incident since she’d been sleeping through most of it.
She recalled going to the hot springs, and she corroborated that Boomer had been driving because of Sammantha’s state, the affidavit says.
There had been several animals on the road on the way to Saratoga, Hannah said.
The affidavit says Hannah recalled Day telling Boomer to slow down, and that Hannah couldn’t remember ever seeing Boomer smoke any marijuana.
In Boomer’s interview, she noted that she’d volunteered to drive since Sammantha Brooks “was extremely high,” and she confirmed seeing rabbits and deer or elk on the way to Saratoga, the document says.
“She did not recall if Trinity (Day) had ever asked her to slow down,” wrote Hobbs, adding that the driver was “fatigued” and in a rush to get back to Casper for work.
Had the car been going 70 mph, “it likely would have stopped before striking the second elk,” Hobbs concluded from Chapman's account of the preliminary crash investigation.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
