The trial lasted three days with the prosecution arguing Johnson was inattentive and speeding, failing to get into a clear left lane of the road to avoid the cyclists. Traci Stansell, assistant prosecuting attorney, said Johnson had 12 seconds to get safely out of the cyclists' path after first seeing them some 960 feet away.
Johnson and his 12-year-old son, Keith, took the stand Wednesday, recounting that they saw the bikers riding along the shoulder of the road. Johnson was driving his son to football practice that day in Raytown. Both said Larry and Sierra started to move left into their lane as they drove up.
That's when Johnson said he panicked and jerked his wheel to the right in an attempt to pass the cyclists on the right, along the shoulder. Johnson said he quickly changed his mind and jerked the wheel left, losing control and skidding headlong into Larry Gaunt and striking Sierra with the side mirror of the truck.
Larry slammed the back of his head into the hood of the pickup, his sunglasses becoming wedged in a gap between the top of the cab and camper shell. He was thrown from the hood and skidded across the road. Sierra was thrown onto the shoulder.
Both cyclists died from blunt-force trauma. Photos of the victims from the Jackson County Medical Examiner's office were shown during the trial, summoning fresh tears from the Gaunt family in the audience.
Officer Scott Evans, an accident reconstructionist with the Grandview Police Department, told the jury he determined Johnson was speeding and wasn't paying attention to the road. He said tire transfer marks showed that Johnson gradually drifted onto the shoulder, and then turned back to the road "in a reactionary motion."
Evans said he measured the skid marks and calculated that Johnson was traveling, at a minimum, 54 mph.
At a trial this month, the motorist who killed bicyclists Larry and Sierra Gaunt was acquitted of two charges of involuntary manslaughter.