By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer, Kaity Kempf | Managing Editor
Testimony began last week for the trial of Tammy Renee Blankenship — a former Midway ISD administrator accused of killing Baylor student David Grotberg in a hit-and-run on the evening of Oct. 6, 2016.
Grotberg was a Fergus Falls, Minn., sophomore majoring in philosophy. Aside from being a member of the Golden Wave Band, Grotberg was an avid bicyclist. At around 10 p.m. on Oct. 6, 2016, he was out riding with his then-girlfriend on the 3200 block of Franklin Avenue, where he was hit and killed by a vehicle.
However, Blankenship was not arrested immediately after the accident, nor was she a suspect. After unsuccessfully spending two months on the search for a vehicle that matched the eyewitness account of a white Toyota RAV4, Waco PD had no other leads to follow and suspended the investigation in December 2016.
It was not until September 2018, when Waco PD received an anonymous letter accusing Blankenship of killing Grotberg in the hit-and-run, that Waco PD was alerted to her potential involvement in the crime.
Two years after this, in June 2020, Blankenship received an indictment. It was revised in July to reflect the charges she currently faces in the McLennan County 54th District Court: manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid.
The first three days of the trial saw testimony from a wide range of those close to the accident. Kaitlyn Morris, Grotberg’s then-girlfriend, and Paula Zuniga, a Waco resident who was driving behind the car that killed Grotberg, were called to the stand to share their eyewitness accounts. Both agreed the vehicle was moving fast and did not stop after colliding with Grotberg, and Zuniga said that she thought the car was a white Toyota RAV4 but that the accident happened too quickly to get much more reliable information.
Multiple others testified last week, including Hannah Ashley — Blankenship’s then-colleague and a social worker for a Midway ISD alternative school.
According to KWTX Managing Editor Tommy Witherspoon’s account of the testimony, Ashley said that on the morning of Oct. 7, 2016 — the day after Grotberg was killed — Blankenship called Ashley into her office to request the phone number of Mary Lou Glaesmann, assistant supervisor of Midway ISD.
Ashley said Blankenship was at a party with colleagues the night before to celebrate the birthday of a coworker. According to Ashley, Blankenship wanted to apologize to Glaesmann for drinking too much and overstaying her welcome. In the meeting, Ashley said Blankenship mentioned she hit something on the way back from the party but wasn’t sure what it was.
Ashley also said that later that day, Blankenship called Ashley back into her office in a state of panic, saying, “I killed a kid. I killed a kid,” with an article about Grotberg’s death pulled up on her phone.
Following the meeting, the two got into Ashley’s car to pick up Blankenship’s silver Hyundai Accent from Blankenship’s daughter, who, as a Baylor student, had used the car to drive to campus for the day. The car was marked with yellow, red and blue scrapes and had a shattered windshield. Grotberg’s bike, of which a photo was shown in the courtroom on Monday, was blue and silver with a hint of yellow.
Blankenship drove the car 30 miles to a Walmart in Marlin, parking it in the back of the lot. In a 2018 police interview, Blankenship said she did this to ensure her daughter was not suspected.
Ashley said once they were back in Waco, she drove Blankenship around to look for what she could have hit the night before. Once they found a portable stop sign that had been knocked over on University Parks Drive, Ashley said Blankenship told her she must have hit the stop sign and was in much better spirits afterward.
Bret Page, a criminal intelligence analyst at Waco PD, was one of two people called to the stand Monday.
Under examination from prosecuting attorneys Will Hix and Tara Avants, Page said that according to cell tower data, Blankenship’s phone could be traced to Glaesmann’s home and the Marlin Walmart at the correct times. Page said cell tower data also traced Blankenship to Franklin Avenue at 9:50 p.m. on the night of Oct. 6 — the time and place Grotberg was killed.
Under cross-examination from defense attorney Shane Phelps, Page conceded to the fact that cell tower data is not infallible, so there is a possibility that it was incorrect to point Blankenship to Franklin Avenue.
John Clark, a detective at Waco PD, was also called to the stand Monday. Clark said he has 32 years of experience in law enforcement — 12 of which have specifically dealt with fatal car accidents. Clark said he has probably investigated over 350 fatal or near-fatal car crashes in his time.
Clark’s testimony largely consisted of a 51-minute interview he conducted with Blankenship in 2018, which was recorded on his body camera.
The interview began with Clark asking Blankenship to explain an insurance claim she filed after the accident. Blankenship said that when she collided with something that evening, she did not know what it was, even claiming to stop and search around the surrounding area to no avail. She then said that later in the night, she was worried she might have hit a homeless person, and her worries continued until she found the fallen stop sign the next day with Ashley. Blankenship said she had photos of the portable stop sign and would show Clark.
“I’ve been investigating car wrecks for 12 years,” Clark said to Blankenship in the interview. “That’s not from a stop sign.”
Blankenship began to panic, cry and repeatedly say, “I did not hit a bicycle.”
“Tammy, I can tell you with 100% certainty that you did not hit a stop sign,” Clark said to Blankenship in the interview.
Clark said he never received any photos of the stop sign from Blankenship.
Following the interview, Phelps began his cross-examination of Clark, which centered around the argument that the investigation of the crime scene was careless. Waco PD did not seek information on Toyota RAV4s that were not registered in McLennan County, nor did it create a scale diagram of the scene. Phelps also proved that the red marks on Blankenship’s car were not blood.
Testimony will continue Tuesday morning with Phelps resuming his cross-examination of Clark. A verdict is not expected until at least Thursday.
