Jury convicts Bobby D. White of DUI and leaving scene after motorcycle crash

A Humphre County jury on [date] found Bobby D. White guilty of driving under the influence and of leaving the scene of a motorcycle accident that resulted in injury.

The verdict followed testimony that Trooper and Sergeant Edward Charles Dexter located White at his residence after a single‑vehicle motorcycle crash on June 18, 2023, and obtained a blood sample later analyzed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. TBI forensic testing, admitted through a stipulated expert, showed ethanol at 0.124 g/dL — above Tennessee's 0.08 legal limit. As the TBI analyst testified, “I found ethyl alcohol and 0.124,” a figure the jury heard the state say supported its case that White was impaired.

The state told jurors it would show officers arrived on scene in the morning and that video and witness accounts tied the registered motorcycle to White. Sergeant Dexter testified officers found White at his house, that he appeared confused and that he consented to a blood draw. “He said that he had not drank that morning, but he had drank the night before and drank a lot,” Dexter testified while describing the contact on his body camera.

The defense asked jurors to weigh a different account. Counsel and family witnesses described a history of convulsive episodes and a post‑seizure (post‑ictal) state marked by confusion, light sensitivity and headaches. White's partner testified she had seen him suffer seizures and that, on prior occasions, he was disoriented afterward and sometimes bit his tongue. Defense counsel argued those symptoms could explain why White left the house and rode the motorcycle in an impaired, confused state rather than as a knowing, voluntary decision to drive.

The court considered a defense request for a special jury instruction that would have emphasized that criminal liability requires a voluntary act, and the judge declined to give the instruction without medical evidence directly tying a seizure to White's ability to form the relevant voluntary act. The judge nonetheless allowed the defense to present lay testimony about observed seizures and preserved the instruction request for appeal.

In closing, the prosecutor emphasized the TBI result and the officers' observations of impairment; defense counsel argued the seizure evidence created reasonable doubt about whether White knowingly placed himself in control of the motorcycle. After deliberation the jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts: DUI (general), DUI with an alcohol concentration of 0.08% or greater, and leaving the scene of an accident with injury.

The judge set sentencing for Oct. 6 and indicated White would remain on bond pending further proceedings. The court also noted motions on related pretrial issues will be resolved in upcoming docket dates.

Court records and the transcript show the state relied principally on on‑scene testimony, body‑cam footage and the TBI report; the defense relied on lay testimony about White's seizure history and the surrounding circumstances. The record does not contain a certified medical diagnosis entered into evidence tying a seizure on June 18, 2023, to White's conduct; the defense declined to call White to testify. The judge preserved the defense's request for a supplemental jury instruction for appeal.