Man Claims Serendipity Killed Ex-wife
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"Expert" testifies that car design may have factored into wife's death
Slidell Sentry-News (Louisiana)
October 19, 1999
COVINGTON - A specialist in ergonomics testified Monday in the second degree
murder trial of Panos Tsolainos, saying the unusual layout of the Buick
Skylark's steering column may have resulted in the death of Tsolainos' ex-wife
Deborah.
Ergonomics, or Human Factors Engineering, addresses the safe and proper design,
and use, of products, according to Dr. Edward W. Karns.
Karns, a prosecution and defense stipulated expert currently works as an
industrial consultant in design.
Beginning the second week of trial, Karns asserted that Tsolainos, in his
urgency to leave the home of his ex-wife, may have confused the gear-shift
lever and the windshield wiper control, causing the car to surge forward when
Tsolainos intended to go into reverse.
Photographs shown to the jury illustrated the proximity of the two control
shafts to one another.
Located on the right side of the steering column, with only three inches of
space separating them, the two controls are also similarly shaped, leading to
the mistake, said Karns.
His research as a defense witness led Karns to survey cars of differing makes
and models and he could find few with what he called "this faulty
configuration."
Karns said he concluded the death of Deborah Tsolainos on July 19, 1998 - a
result of simultaneously being crushed and bled to death - was more than likely
because of "control misapplication". Tsolainos' attorney Bob Stern asked Karns
what other factors could have gone into causing such a catastrophe to occur.
Karns said the combination of Tsolainos' agitation at being confronted by his
ex-wife, and his understanding that he was violating a restraining order could
have distracted him sufficiently so in attempting to back the Buick Skylark out
of the driveway Tsolainos actually put the car into forward.
Panos Tsolainos, his step daughter Melissa and alleged hitman broker Gerald
Brannigan were all arrested in connection with a conspiracy to kill Deborah
while she lived in St. Louis, Missouri.
Two days before the weight of the Skylark, with Panos behind the wheel, pinned
Deborah, face down, on the ground, Panos bonded out of jail with the condition
that he have no contact with his ex-wife.
Tsolainos and his girlfriend, Connie Deville, on July 19 cut short a trip that
took them house-hunting as far as Waveland, Mississippi.
Tsolainos said, he reluctantly visited the Slidell-area home Deborah and their
younger children recently moved into to collect items that belonged to
Tsolainos and Deville that Deborah threatened to trash.
According to testimony from Clarissa Tsolainos, George Deforest and taped
interviews with Panos, the initial visit went well, but turned sour when
Tsolainos and Deborah began to argue.
Tsolainos, in his interview with St. Tammany Sheriff's Detective Robert Juge,
said he became increasingly agitated as the argument escalated and Deborah
began to slam her fists on the hood of Deville's Skylark
In a state of what Dr. Karns called "hyper-vigilance," or panic, coupled with
his unfamiliarity with the Skylark's controls Tsolainos shifted the car into
what he thought was reverse.
Tsolainos, said he was shocked as the car surged forward and, before he could
react, to find the car almost completely on its right side, leaning against the
tree it had crashed into, with the weight of the nearly two-ton Buick resting
on the neck and shoulders of his ex-wife.
Other testimony included Dr. William J. George a toxicologist who said that
Deborah, based on blood work done during the autopsy of the body had a blood
alcohol level of 0.075.
This, George said, meant Deborah had to drink at least three and half beers,
glasses of wine or shots of whiskey in the hour before her death, or a similar
amount plus one more for every hour added.
The defense said a state of inebriation would explain why Deborah reacted so
strongly to Tsolainos on July 19, in turn leading to his agitation.
The trial continues today in the court of Judge Donald Fendlason.
Mark Denman
Park
Reverse
Neutral
Drive
Low
Changing gears except into <N> Neutral requires moving the lever towards
the driver and then sliding it into its position. No such manipulation
is required for turning wipers on and off.
Changing from <P> Park to <R> Reverse is a short travel compared to
changing to <D> Drive.
Changing from <N> Neutral to <R> Reverse is the opposite direction of
changing to <D> Drive.
Also, is there an admission as to the intent being to put the vehicle in
<R> Reverse, then why say anything about confusion with the wiper
controls?
If the vehicle was already in <D> Drive, the shift lever would be out of
position compared to the wiper control.
I hope the jury isn't gullible enough to fall for this....
<a photo of the shifter and wiper lever in the alleged positions would
be helpful though>
--
Mark Denman ~W.W.J.J.D.?~ <"what would judge judy do?">
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