A mother-of-one, who was allegedly chased by a 4×4 while riding pillion on an electric motorbike, was ploughed into and went “over the whole car” before she died on a country lane, a murder trial has heard.
A jury at Derby Crown Court was told on Friday that Alana Armstrong, 25, died at the scene in Batley Lane, Pleasley, in Derbyshire, on November 26 last year after Keaton Muldoon allegedly made five attempts to hit her and her boyfriend off the motorcycle.
Muldoon, 23, who the court was told was a drug dealer, is charged with the murder of Ms Armstrong and causing grievous bodily harm to 22-year-old Jordan Newton-Kay. He denies both charges.
The jury was told that Muldoon had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The defendant, of Tuckers Lane, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, appeared in the dock on Friday wearing a navy suit, white shirt and burgundy tie, in front of a full press bench and public gallery.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Sally Howes KC told the jury of 11 women and one man: “We begin shortly after 8pm on Tuesday November 26 last year.
“Emergency services – ambulance and police – attended the scene of a road traffic collision in a narrow, dark country road located in rural Derbyshire called Batley Lane.
“Upon arrival, paramedics found two people, a young man and a young woman, lying in the road together with a small electric motorcycle.”
The court heard that Ms Armstrong’s boyfriend, Mr Newton-Kay, later told police that he, Alana, and another motorcycle rider on a separate bike, all of whom had smoked cannabis that evening, had been “pursued and chased” by what he thought was a “large, dark, old-style Land Rover or Range Rover”.
Mr Newton-Kay said he saw Ms Armstrong, from Tibshelf, “roll over the whole car” as the vehicle “came over” him when the vehicle’s bumper hit the bike’s back wheel, the jury heard.
Ms Howes told the court: “The catastrophic injuries sustained by Alana Armstrong as a result of this collision were unsurvivable and she was declared dead at the scene.”
The court heard that Mr Newton-Kay suffered a “horrific” injury to his right lower leg which meant it had to be amputated.
Ms Howes told the court that the vehicle – a Land Rover Discovery – had been parked up in “darkness” in a field before Mr Newton-Kay saw it and decided to “take a closer look”, together with the other motorcycle rider.
The court heard they noticed two figures inside, before the vehicle, driven by Muldoon, “spun round” and “came straight at” them.
Ms Howes told the court that after a fifth attempt to hit the motorbike while driving along a country lane, Mr Newton-Kay remembers being “under the car”.
She told the jury that Mr Newton-Kay said the defendant “just ploughed us” and “left us for dead, did not even touch the brakes”.
The jury heard that Muldoon initially told police he did not drive the 4×4 that evening and that his uncle had it, but later admitted he had driven the vehicle but the crash had been an accident.
Ms Howes said: “The defendant later indicated to the prosecution that he was the driver of the Land Rover Discovery… but that the collision was an accident and he further states that he was driving in a state of panic in fear of being robbed by the two people on the motorcycles.”
She told the jury that the defendant contacted a man within an hour of the collision asking if he wanted to buy the Land Rover, and an agreement was made to swap vehicles.
The prosecution allege that the collision was a “deliberate, targeted running down” using a “highly powerful” vehicle to run the small motorcycle off the road.
Ms Howes added: “It’s the Crown’s case that at the time of the impact, the defendant must have intended to at least cause serious harm to his victims.”
The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.
