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Law enforcement and eyewitnesses recounted Tuesday a deadly crash that killed a Dallas police officer as the accused drunk driver’s trial began.
Phillip Mabry, 34, is charged with intoxication manslaughter of a peace officer in connection with the death of 27-year-old Officer Mitchell Penton on Feb. 13, 2021. Mabry faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Penton was killed while directing traffic after a wreck on northbound U.S. Highway 75 near Walnut Hill Lane. A speeding black Kia Forte slammed into the back of Penton’s squad car, which fatally struck the officer, police said. Penton’s car was the last in a line of vehicles and flares blocking the accident and attempting to get other vehicles to move over, according to testimony. He’d moved his car even further back to protect his fellow officers.
Penton “did everything right,” while Mabry “made a dangerous choice,” prosecutor Lauren Black said in opening statements Tuesday evening. Black asked the 14-person jury — which includes two alternates — to “hold someone accountable for their choice because dangerous choices come with consequences.”
Mabry’s attorney, Stephanie Martin, argued prosecutors cannot prove by the measure of the law that intoxication caused the “tragic, tragic accident.”
Tow truck driver Matt Ballentine, whose dashboard camera captured the crash, testified that the sedan “blew past [him], like [he] was barely moving at all.” Black told jurors the car was going more than 85 mph.
Ballentine’s video shows the car zooming down the highway and colliding with a distant vehicle diffused by emergency lights. Ballentine slowed to a stop, got out of his truck with a flashlight and walked toward the patrol car, where he saw Penton. He then called 911.
An “officer is in the middle of the highway,” Ballentine told a 911 operator in the call that was recorded on his dash-cam video. Officers who were called to the initial wreck rushed to Penton.
Another eyewitness, LaChristopher Carroll, videoed Penton face down on the ground and testified the officer was about 50 feet from his patrol car. Black said in opening statements that the impact of the crash sent Penton into the air. Police and a paramedic who responded described Penton’s gruesome injuries, including head trauma, a broken leg and exposed bone, and blood pooling in his mouth.
A fellow policeman, Conner Smith, who ran to Penton’s aid, said he placed a hand on Penton and prayed. Smith had wrapped Penton’s head wound with gauze, leaving his blue latex gloves soaked with blood, he said.
Ballentine said the Forte hit the squad car in the left lanes then rammed into the right cement barrier. Prosecutors argued Mabry did not brake or slow down for the emergency lights.
Another driver that night testified the black sedan was flush against the wall, and a man was pacing around the car with his hands atop his head. One officer testified the man looked frantic.
At the time of the deadly crash, Dallas streets already were becoming treacherous ahead of the year’s historic winter storm. Mabry was not hurt; a passenger in his car was injured, police said.
Penton’s loved ones wept at times during testimony; Kathy Penton, his mother, leaned forward in the Dallas County courtroom gallery, hair hanging in her face, as witnesses described her son’s injuries.
Penton grew up in North Texas and graduated from Richardson High School. The soccer standout attended Rogers State University in Oklahoma and played for its team as goalkeeper. In 2015, he graduated with a degree in criminal justice.
On the stand, Kathy Penton said her son wanted to be a lawyer but did poorly on the law school entrance exam and pivoted to becoming a police officer. The oldest child in his family, Penton joined the Dallas police department in 2019, and the “rookie” was assigned to the Northeast Patrol Division. He and his wife were expecting their first child.
Mabry, who wore a plaid dress shirt and khaki pants in court, also faces additional charges of tampering with evidence, a felony, and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor, according to court records. He was released from Dallas County Jail on bond ahead of the trial.
Testimony is set to continue Wednesday.