Over the last 31 months, the family of Lloyd Jason Reed has shared the events of his final day and their experiences since losing him in a car accident Oct. 2, 2018. They’ve talked of the bathroom remodel he was working on with his stepdaughter and how the two were on their way home from Lowe’s when their El Camino was struck by a GMC Envoy driven by someone under the influence.

They’ve shared how he was a hard worker and great friend, how much he loved his stepchildren, how they found out about the wreck and the injuries that Reed’s stepdaughter, Sadie Norman, sustained. On Tuesday, Norman recalled her memories of that night and her recovery journey for a Limestone County jury.

Wednesday afternoon, Scotty Dale Moss — the driver of the GMC Envoy and the man on trial for Reed’s murder — shared his.

Moss said he got home from his job in Pulaski, Tennessee, around 4:30 or 5 p.m. Oct. 2, 2018. On any given day, Moss said, friends would come over to hang out, and that night was no different.

At one point, he left the trailer park where he lived on Zehner Road to get pizza at Little Caesar’s in Athens. He went back home, then made a second trip into town to buy a pint of Fireball cinnamon whisky from a liquor store on U.S. 31.

Moss said he shared the bottle with four of his friends after he got back, each of them taking at least one shot and himself drinking four or five. Members of the group started taking turns riding his girlfriend’s son’s dirt bike, but they “had to keep airing the tire,” he said.

When the tire wouldn’t hold any air, Moss said he and a friend went inside to repair it. They then wanted to air the tire up at a local convenience store so the group could continue taking turns riding it.

“That’s when I got Keith’s truck to go to the store,” Moss told the courtroom, referring to the GMC Envoy he would later wreck. He estimated it had been “45 minutes to an hour” since his last shot of Fireball.

Moss said he and Julyn “Jay” Posey drove to George’s Country Store on New Cut Road, filled the tire with air and were headed back to his home when Posey told him the tire was still leaking air.

Moss said he looked away from the road, taking a hand off the steering wheel as he turned his head to check the tire. When he looked back up, he “saw headlights.”

Point of impact

Moss told jurors he swerved to miss the El Camino, running off the road, then steered back onto the road before the collision. It was around 8:40 p.m., and they were less than half a mile from Moss’ home.

“The next thing I remember is asking Jay, ‘Are you OK?'” Moss told the courtroom.

He said he couldn’t recall parts of what happened immediately before or after the wreck. Assistant District Attorney Bill Lisenby showed photos of the tire marks on Zehner Road, saying there was no proof that Moss had driven off the road.

Moss testified he took photos of his own to prove he had, but the phone he used was elsewhere Wednesday.

When asked why he didn’t call 911, Moss said he had left his phone at home. He remembered checking the El Camino, but when Posey noticed Norman, Moss said he told him to leave her alone because helping might cause further harm.

Body camera footage played during the trial shows Moss wandering around, shirtless and in shorts, talking to other people at the scene. At one point, Lisenby noted, Moss can be heard telling someone he was the passenger, not the driver, in the wreck. At another point, Moss gestures towards a person, identified as the same individual who gave him the keys to the Envoy, and telling officers they should talk to him.

Moss said he doesn’t know why he denied driving or directed authorities to someone else and suggested the latter may have been so officers could get insurance information on the vehicle. He said he was disoriented from the wreck but remembers feeling scared and upset.

Taking responsibility

Moss estimated it took 10–15 minutes before he told officers he had been the one behind the wheel. He provided a written statement at the scene and signed a consent form to have his blood drawn to see how much alcohol was in his system. A state trooper took him to a local hospital for the test.

“I’m sure I got on his nerves, repeating myself,” Moss said, adding he kept telling the trooper, “I never meant to hurt anybody. If I could trade places, I would” and that his emotional state at the time was that of “a big titty baby.”

Moss told the jury that, even though he had “felt like nothing was wrong” when he got behind the wheel, Posey had warned him not to get pulled over because there was a possibility Moss would get charged with DUI.

Lisenby said Tuesday that evidence showed Moss’ blood-alcohol content was .144, nearly double the legal limit. He clarified Wednesday that if Moss was telling the truth about driving at least 45 minutes after taking his last shot, Moss’ BAC would have been around .16 when the wreck occurred, or double the legal limit.

Other test results discussed during the trial included the presence of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid dependency, in Moss’ system that night. Lisenby had previously described the drug as one that would impair Moss’ ability to drive, and Moss agreed it would make him sick if he took the full dosage.

He said that’s why he broke up his pills into smaller pieces and, on average, would only take about one-third of the prescribed dosage per day, leaving him OK to work and operate a vehicle.

After the wreck

Moss said he didn’t receive treatment for his own injuries at the hospital — he testified to sustaining multiple fractured or broken bones — and was dropped off at his home after the blood test by a state trooper who told him to “heal up.”

The next day, Oct. 3, 2018, Moss said the trooper visited his house to formally arrest him for his involvement in Reed’s death and Norman’s injuries. Records show Moss was initially charged with reckless murder and DUI-assault.

On June 20, 2019, he was arrested again after a Limestone County grand jury indicted him on three charges: reckless murder, first-degree assault and DUI. In February 2020, a fourth charge of reckless manslaughter was added.

Lisenby asked the jury during his opening statement to convict Moss on the murder, assault and DUI charges, while Moss’ defense attorney, John Edmond Mays, has asked the jury to consider a not-guilty verdict because his client should be convicted of criminally negligent homicide instead.

The News Courier will have additional information on this case in an upcoming edition.