Jury finds Houser guilty on two charges

Shannon Houser, right, says goodbye to his wife while his mother and daughter look on following his sentencing in Fayette Circuit Court Thursday evening. Photo by Ed Matthews | Staff

A jury found Shannon Houser guilty of leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the April 13 hit-and-run death of UK freshman Connie Blount.

The trial concluded Thursday with the verdict and the unanimous jury decision to give Houser the maximum sentences on each count. The jury recommended he serve a total of six years — five for the count of tampering with physical evidence and one year for leaving the scene of an accident. He will be eligible for parole in nine months.

Houser, 37, was found not guilty of a possession of marijuana charge.

Blount’s father, Jack Blount, said while he had closure in some ways, the verdict won’t bring his daughter back.

“In one sense, I won’t lose sleep at night knowing (Houser) is still out on the roads,” Jack Blount said after the verdict was announced. “But my daughter is still dead. Nothing changes that.”

Jack Blount, defense attorney Edward Dove and Houser’s mother, Donna Hoyt, agreed both families were hurt by the events of April 13.

“There are two families in this case,” Dove said in his closing statement.

Hoyt said her son’s sentence meant pain for another family — Houser has an 11-year-old daughter, April.

“Accidents happen,” Hoyt said. “But I want my son to be there for his daughter. I can’t be her father. None of this will bring (Jack Blount’s) daughter back.”

Hoyt said she wasn’t surprised by the verdict because she felt the jury and the media saw her family as “nobodies” throughout the case.

“He’s guilty, OK, the jury has said that. Now (the Blounts) get to go back to Utah and be happy,” Hoyt said.

But Jack Blount said happiness isn’t something that will come from seeing Houser sentenced.

“We’re not happy. Mr. Houser’s family seems to think we’re going to go out and throw a party,” Blount said. “But there are more victims now. My heart goes out to his daughter.”

The verdict and sentencing came after a day of testimony from the medical expert who performed Blount’s autopsy and the detective who investigated the hit-and-run.

Dr. Kristen Rauf, a Kentucky medical examiner said Blount’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, trunk and extremities including damage to her brain stem, which allows for basic life functions like respiration and lung function.

Dove previously told the jury that Houser didn’t know he had struck Blount with his truck because he didn’t see her and only heard a “thump.”

Detective Matt Brotherton, who headed up the investigation, testified it wasn’t likely Houser could hit a human body and not feel it as his vehicle passed over it.

“I’ve hit animals as small as a squirrel before,” Brotherton said on the witness stand. “And you can feel it go all the way under you.”

Throughout the trial, Houser and his defense never denied he had been driving the truck that hit and killed Blount. However, not knowing he’d hit her, Houser said the whole thing was an accident and he “would give anything in the world to turn back the clock.”

But Jack Blount said wanting to turn back the clock wasn’t enough.

“He never said ‘sorry,’ not through any of this,” Jack Blount said. “There are no accidents in life, only acts of negligence and someone has to be punished for my daughter’s death.”

Houser is in custody until his sentencing hearing on March 6. Jack Blount said he would be returning to his home in Park City, Utah, on Friday.