A driver accused of murdering a young mother who was riding pillion on an off-road e-bike was “not acting like he had hit someone” immediately after the incident, his passenger has told a court.
Jordan Hind told jurors at Derby Crown Court that she did not hear anyone screaming or think there was anything underneath the Land Rover Discovery being driven by Keaton Muldoon.
Muldoon, 23, denies using the vehicle to murder 25-year-old Alana Armstrong but has admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The defendant, of Tuckers Lane, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, further denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Ms Armstrong’s boyfriend Jordan Newton-Kay, whose right leg was amputated 15cm above the knee after the crash.
The court heard that Mr Newton-Kay was riding his black, orange and blue off-road bike with Ms Armstrong on the back that evening, while a friend was on another similar bike.
Giving evidence from behind a curtain on Tuesday in the third week of Muldoon’s trial, Miss Hind said she was the rear seat passenger at the time of the alleged murder in Batley Lane, Pleasley, Derbyshire.
Answering questions from defence barrister Adrian Langdale KC, Miss Hind said she was picked up in a pub car park shortly before the fatal collision at about 8pm on November 26 last year, having arranged to buy £30 worth of drugs from Muldoon.
She told the court that Muldoon had asked her for her phone and clothes in text messages in the days after the incident, before texting to say he would hand himself in.
Miss Hind, who could not be seen from the public gallery or the dock, said: “Obviously I had been dragged into something I had not done and I was scared and I wanted it to be sorted.”
After accepting that she had lied to police by denying she had ever been in the Land Rover when she was arrested at her home on suspicion of murder on November 30, Miss Hind gave jurors her account of the fatal incident.
Describing how the incident started shortly after Muldoon pulled into a lay-by, Miss Hind told the jury: “I jumped out and got into the back to get (drugs from a coat pocket).
“It looked like car lights because there were two lights. I thought it was police or somebody else and obviously I was panicking, so I laid down and I hid.”
Muldoon was still in the driver’s seat, Miss Hind told the court, and had driven off pretty much as soon as she had started hiding.
“It was just a normal pull away.”
Telling the court she had felt no bangs and had not heard the sound of anything being hit by the Land Rover, Miss Hind said: “It felt like it was going up grass verges and skidding and things like that.”
Mr Langdale asked Miss Hind about assertions she had made to police that Muldoon swore while he was at the wheel and had shouted “move out of the way” and said he had “only meant to hit the back” of the victims’ e-bike.
Asked by Mr Langdale if she could recall precisely what was said, Miss Hind responded: “I can’t be sure of exactly what (was said) but it was around that same sort of thing.
“It comes up to the same thing of him knocking somebody off a bike.”
The witness maintained that she had not heard any screaming, that she “didn’t hear anything under the car” and said there had been no attempt to ram the rider of the second e-bike.
After pulling over following the incident, Muldoon remained calm, was not aggressive or “acting like he had hit someone,” the court heard.
Under re-examination by prosecutor Sally Howes KC, Miss Hind said she had made an internet search for the latest police news in the wake of the incident because of the comments made by Muldoon.
“I didn’t feel anything but him saying that – obviously something had happened. It was just a general wanting to know,” she told the court.
The trial continues.
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