Baldwin County drops BUI homicide case against Florida man

Michael Phillip Driver

BAY MINETTE, Alabama - Baldwin County District Attorney Hallie Dixon said it was decided that a Pensacola man will not be prosecuted in the2008 boating deaths of his mother and sister after the defense revealed it had two witnesses who would testify that Michael Phillip Driver was not operating the vessel.

The new evidence was presented during a hearing Monday. Driver’s attorney, Spencer E. Davis Jr., said the defense had been aware of the witnesses since just after the accident. But because Driver was not indicted until earlier this year, “there was nobody to inform of their existence until after the charge came up.”

“Generally, when you end up having witnesses that are real favorable to the defense, you don’t tell the other side and kind of ambush them with it at trial,” Davis said. “But the prosecutor in this case (Patrick Prendergast) was real open with me about what his evidence was and I had enough faith that he might make the right decision.”

Davis said he then decided to go ahead and disclose to Prendergast that the defense had these witnesses.

Driver, 33, was indicted in May for the homicides of 68-year-old Nancy Driver and 44-year-old Kathryn Liscoe. Alabama Marine Police said at the time that Driver was under the influence of alcohol when he steered a 31-foot boat carrying six passengers into Rabbit Island at the southern tip of Ono Island about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 24, 2008. Driver’s mother and sister were pronounced dead at the scene while all the other passengers except one were hospitalized.

According to Davis, Driver’s father met with the District Attorney’s Office following the hearing and requested that no one else be charged in the case.

“The family’s position is that this was a tragic accident and that they want to try to get on with their lives and they don’t want anyone prosecuted for what was just an accident,” Davis said.

“The case was tragic for this family,” Dixon said in an email Tuesday. “Once the case was indicted, two witnesses who say that the defendant was not driving were made known to our office and were put under oath to testify to that information. After talking with the father and husband of the two deceased victims, as well as law enforcement, our office determined that the only appropriate course was to re-evaluate the prosecution and to nol-pros it.”