1997

FRIEND RECOUNTS ARGUMENT, FATAL CRASH AT COURT HEARING, SURVIVOR CALLS LOVETTSVILLE COUPLE'S QUARRELS `A COMMON THING'
Washington Post-Thursday, November 20, 1997

FRIEND RECOUNTS ARGUMENT, FATAL CRASH AT COURT HEARING, SURVIVOR CALLS LOVETTSVILLE COUPLE'S QUARRELS `A COMMON THING'
By Maria Glod Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 20, 1997 ; Page V03

Lewis Smallwood told a Loudoun County judge Monday that his friend Kenneth Lester was on his way home to move his belongings out of the Lovettsville apartment he shared with his wife, Lucy, when she rammed her car three times into his pickup truck. The truck flipped, killing Lester. Smallwood, who was in the truck's passenger seat and survived, testified that moments before the Aug. 23 crash, Lucy Lester told her husband she was having an affair. They quarreled heatedly, he said. Although police had disclosed that the couple argued that evening, the preliminary hearing in Loudoun County Juvenile and Domestic Court brought out new details about the Lesters' sometimes stormy relationship and the events leading up to the deadly accident.

The case was heard in domestic court because the defendant and the victim were married. Defense attorney Rodney G. Leffler, of Fairfax, described Lucy Lester, 22, as a young wife who struggled to compete with Smallwood and others for her husband's attention. Leffler said the facts could support a conclusion that she was driving recklessly but didn't mean to hurt anyone. Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Owen D. Basham contended that she acted with purpose, supporting a charge of felony murder and two counts of malicious wounding.

"It is just horrifying to have one person in an automobile ramming another person in an automobile repeatedly," Basham said. "There was intent to hurt." General District Court Judge Jean H. Clements will determine whether there is enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury for possible indictments on the charges. Smallwood, 27, who described himself as Kenneth Lester's best friend since grade school, said he and Lester had spent the day together running errands and washing their trucks.

That balmy Saturday evening, he said, they planned to go to a party or the Clarke County Fair and stopped first to pick up some beer. Then, sometime after 9 p.m., Smallwood said, they pulled into the driveway of a friend's house where Lucy Lester was visiting. Before they could climb out of Lester's truck, the couple started yelling at each other, Smallwood said. He said Lucy Lester was angry because she hadn't seen her husband all day.

During the quarrel, Lucy Lester told her husband she had been cheating on him and wanted a divorce, Smallwood said. The argument escalated, he said, and Lucy Lester reached inside the truck and slapped her husband, who then got out of the truck. Smallwood said he thinks Kenneth Lester returned the blow, although he didn't see him strike his wife. "When they would argue, I would tend not to pay much attention to it because it was a common thing," Smallwood said.

"I have seen her hit him before, and I have seen him hit her back. I believe they weren't very happy." When Kenneth Lester, 27, got back into the truck, Smallwood said, he backed down the driveway, kicking up gravel, and drove north on Route 611. Smallwood said that when he asked where they were headed, his friend said he was going home to "get his stuff out." Moments later, Smallwood said, they noticed Lucy Lester's gold 1994 Saturn behind them and were shocked when she rammed into the back of the 1995 Toyota pickup.

When she rammed the back of the truck a second time, Kenneth Lester hit the brakes briefly to slow the truck, Smallwood said. The last thing he heard from his friend was a warning to brace himself for another blow, Smallwood said. "He just said, you better hold on, she's going to hit us again," Smallwood said. "She come up around to the left side of the center of the truck . . . and hit us for the third time. I can just remember it felt like we were sliding sideways, and after that I could just hear glass and metal."

Smallwood, who was injured in the crash, said he was trying to free himself from the wreckage when he heard Lucy Lester ask him if he could check on her husband. "I don't feel that she intended to hurt either of us, but that doesn't change the fact that she did," Smallwood said.

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