Man charged with DUI, vehicular homicide
SLIPPERY ROCK — A suspected drunken driver was more than 2½ times the state's legal limit for alcohol and had cocaine in his system last summer when he crashed a kit car in northern Butler County, killing his passenger, authorities said.
State police Wednesday arrested Aaron J. Burd, 39, of Butler on vehicular homicide and a long list of other charges in the crash that killed 26-year-old Tanya Lynn Tyson of Saxonburg.
Investigators said Burd lost control of his convertible roadster kit car about 9:15 p.m. June 27 and slammed into a tree along Slippery Rock Road in Slippery Rock Township.
A short time before the wreck, police said, he was doing “burnouts,” spinning tires and screaming obscenities at his ex-wife in front of her home.
The defendant, however, claimed he was not driving the car when it crashed, according to court documents. He identified another woman as the driver.
But when police checked out his story, documents said, it turned out that the woman had been in Butler County Prison when the crash happened.
District Judge Bill O'Donnell arraigned Burd on felony charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI and homicide by vehicle.
Additionally, he is charged with multiple counts of DUI, false reports to law enforcement authorities, harassment and eight traffic violations.
He was released on $75,000 unsecured bail. O'Donnell, as a condition of Burd's release, ordered him to wear a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, an alcohol-detecting ankle bracelet.
Slippery Rock volunteer firefighters and paramedics were already at the crash scene when troopers got there. The car broke apart after hitting the tree.
Tyson, the passenger, ended up underneath the vehicle, emergency crews said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, investigators said.
Burd was thrown out of the vehicle and landed about 20 feet away. He was injured but reportedly conscious and talking when rescuers found him.
Rescuers smelled alcohol coming from him and he told them that he had been drinking, police said.
He was flown by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. A police report at the time described his injuries as “severe.”
Police said that before the crash they had gotten calls and received information about an erratic driver in a vehicle that matched the one Burd was driving.
Burd's wife called shortly after 9 p.m. to report that the defendant had been tailgating her while she was driving home.“(She) related that Burd was yelling at her and screaming obscenities as she was trying to get inside of her residence,” according to a police affidavit.He also was doing burnouts in his car, she told police.Investigators eventually spoke to Burd at the hospital. He admitted he had been “drunk driving” before the wreck, the affidavit said. But when the crash happened, he claimed there were three people in the car, and that he was not driving.He gave the name of a Butler woman as the purported driver, police said. He later stopped talking without an attorney.On June 28, investigators tracked down the woman, who was in Butler County Prison. She admitted knowing the defendant but denied driving his car.Police corroborated her account, documents said, finding that she had been in the prison since June 19.On July 5, police obtained a search warrant for his medical records. Burd's toxicology reports showed his blood-alcohol was 0.212 percent. In Pennsylvania, a level of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated.The reports showed he also tested positive for benzoylecgonine, which is a metabolite of cocaine.Burd's preliminary hearing is set for May 9. His attorney, Joseph Nash, did not immediately return a telephone call Thursday.
