Voice Of Post

John Goodman trial, Scott Patrick Wilson would have survived for about only five minutes - after he stopped holding his breath - when his car plunged into a murky Florida canal after it was broad sided by John Goodman's Bentley on a dark, rural Wellington road in February 2010.

Palm Beach County Medical Examiner Michael Bell gave jurors that estimate, key because the former Houston millionaire left the scene and none of the first responders had any idea the young man remained in the car.

Bell's testimony came on the fourth day of Goodman's DUI manslaughter retrial, which also featured a confrontation between prosecutors and Goodman's girlfriend, threats from a witness to plead the Fifth and discrepancies over whether Goodman drank an Irish Car Bomb a friend offered earlier in the evening.

Bell, who said Wilson could have otherwise survived his injuries had he not gone into the water, said the 23-year-old's brain would have continued to function for only a few minutes without oxygen.

"And after that?" Chief Assistant State Attorney Alan Johnson asked.

"You're dead dead," Bell said.

Visit three days later

Later, prosecutor Sherri Collins clashed with Heather Hutchins, the girlfriend Goodman notoriously tried to adopt to lock her into a family trust fund. On Monday, Hutchins testified that she rushed Goodman to a Miami hospital a day after the crash because he was dizzy and nauseous - both symptoms that support the defense theory that Goodman suffered a concussion that left him disoriented and unable to tell that, in his quest for a telephone, he had left Wilson to drown.

Testimony has shown that Goodman wandered unseen by authorities for nearly an hour before calling 911.

But Collins brought in hospital records from Mercy Hospital in Miami showing that Goodman actually visited three days later, the night before he was supposed to have surgery on the wrist he shattered in the wreck. According to hospital records, Goodman complained of chest pains and nothing else.

Collins pressed Hutchins further, asking her why she had failed to mention Goodman's symptoms to investigators. When Hutchins said no one ever asked, Collins brought out a transcript that showed investigators gave her an opportunity to add anything else she thought might be important for them to know.

Didn't know her rights?

Hutchins, who lives in Atlanta and said she and Goodman have been in an on-and-off relationship since the crash, never broke her calm as Collins questioned her. She simply explained that she had never been involved in a criminal investigation, didn't know what her rights were and had no lawyer to represent her.

"I was there to take care of John. I wasn't a big part of the case," Hutchins said.

"And you're here to take care of John now, aren't you?" Collins replied, bringing an objection from defense attorney Douglas Duncan.After Chief Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath upheld Duncan's objection, Hutchins left the stand without another word.

Polo player Kris Kampsen, on the other hand, left the stand Wednesday with a deep exhale that brought laughs from several members of the sequestered jury deciding Goodman's case.

Kampsen testified that he didn't know whether Goodman accepted the Irish Car Bomb - a drink mixing whiskey and beer - he offered during a night of partying at the Player's Club in Wellington just before the crash that killed Wilson.

Under Duncan's cross-examination, however, Kampsen said Goodman - owner of the polo team that paid Kampsen $120,000 a year - waved him off when he offered the drink.

Goodman testified at his last trial that he only had four drinks that night, but he claimed the Irish Car Bomb wasn't one of them. The drinks were two shots of tequila and two vodka and tonics.

But prosecutors believe Goodman drank enough to produce blood test results hours after the crash that were more than twice the level at which Florida drivers are presumed impaired.

Goodman saud he wasn't impaired and walked after the crash to Kampsen's "man cave" and chugged liquor there to numb the pain.

Kampsen will return later as a defense witness.

His luxury barn was part of testimony earlier from Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputy Ricardo Safford, who rejected Duncan's claims that he visited the barn, even though a GPS readout put the deputy's car there several hours after the crash.

Safford said he wouldn't have conducted his own investigation because he was a rookie and wouldn't have wanted to step on investigators' toes, adding that he believed his GPS was wrong.

Safford testified that Goodman reeked so badly of alcohol that he had to lower his windows after he let Goodman out of his squad car to get rid of the odor. "It was coming out of his pores, like he was sweating it out," Safford said.

Testimony will continue Thursday with bartender Cathleen Lewter, who showed up Wednesday with defense attorney Fred Haddad, who told Colbath that Lewter intended to plead her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Johnson argued she had no right because she testified at the last trial. In discussing the issue, Haddad made reference to a federal investigation into perjury charges, but didn't reveal any other details.