Nestande from jail: I know what happened

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A phone call Gabrielle Nestande made from jail to her family was played for the jury just before court recessed on Thursday.

In the call, Nestande's mother and sister assure her that everything will be okay and that they have contacted an attorney.

Francesca Nestande, Gabrielle's sister, encourages her to stay strong, pray, and have faith.

"You have nothing on your record. You are a perfect girl and everyone knows it. That's going to help you out," said Francesca.

Later on Francesca asked her sister about what happened.

"Do you know at all? How drunk were you?" asked Francesca.

"I wasn't," said Gabrielle answering the question about whether or not she was drunk. "Yes I do, I know what happened."

Later in the conversation, Gabrielle sobs while saying "I can't believe this. What the heck."

Francesca replies "I know, I am not going to drink again after this."

Bar Witness says Nestande looked "sloppy"

A female friend of Gabrielle Nestande who was with her at Clive Bar testified that she appeared "wasted" and "sloppy."

The same friend said without a doubt, Nestande was stumbling.

The woman was the first witness to say that Nestande clearly looked inebriated. Previous witnesses all testified that they were not sure and did not see obvious signs of intoxication.

Key testimony from boyfriend

Gabrielle Nestande’s boyfriend testified Thursday that he was drunk when he and Nestande returned to his home from Clive Bar in the early morning hours the day Courtney Griffin was killed in a hit-and-run.

A key piece of testimony came when prosecutors were combing through William Marchbanks' phone records and calls he made to his girlfriend in the days after the accident.

In a June 2011 interview with investigators, Marchbanks said Nestande admitted to him on the Sunday following the wreck to knowing she had hit a human being and that she “couldn’t get the image out of her head.”

The testimony could prove pivotal as previous testimony indicated Nestande thought she either hit a deer or had a rock thrown at her windshield.

Marchbanks qualified that statement by saying that is how he interpreted what Nestande was saying at the time and that he may have misunderstood.

Defense attorney Perry Minton tried to attack those statements by questioning Marchbanks about his understanding of the statements.

Through questioning, Marchbanks said his understanding of the statements has changed since the interview with investigators.

When Nestande said she “couldn’t get the image out of her mind", Minton asked if the image of a shattered windshield would be hard to shake after finding out that someone died.

Marchbanks said that it would.

In the days after the accident, Marchbanks told a friend that he should not have let Nestande leave his home that night, but he testified that he made the statement not because she was drunk, but because it would have prevented the entire tragedy from happening.

According to other Marchbanks' testimony, Nestande left his house around 12:30 a.m. May 26, 2011, before returning about 15- to 20 minutes later. She said she was driving down Exposition Boulevard and that someone had thrown a rock at her windshield.

Believing some kids were causing trouble, Marchbanks testified to walking around the neighborhood to see if he could find them but said he did not walk down Exposition Boulevard. When he returned home, he said Nestande was asleep in his bed.
 
In a phone conversation the following morning between the two, Nestande expressed anxiety about telling her father that her car was damaged, according to Marchbanks' testimony. During that conversation, Nestande raised the possibility that a deer hit her windshield.

The state applied pressure in its questioning if Marchbanks was evasive with an officer who was investigating the wreck.

Marchbanks previously told police that Nestande was only drinking beer on the night leading into the deadly wreck, despite testifying in court Thursday that he remembered buying her a shot.

Prosecutor Allison Wetzel asked if he held back to protect his girlfriend, but Marchbanks blamed a fuzzy memory of some details on his intoxicated state at the time.

After being unable to remember the details to several of Wetzel’s questions, she asked him if there was any reason why he would have reason for significant memory loss.

An awkward exchange also took place between Wetzel and Marchbanks when she asked him about Nestande’s demeanor when she returned to his home after the accident.

“Was she hysterical?” asked Wetzel.

When Marchbanks responded by asking what she meant, Wetzel asked, “You graduated from Baylor, I assume you know what 'hysterical' means.”

While visiting Nestande in jail, Marchbanks testified Perry Minton advised him to hire an attorney of his own.

Marchbanks did hire an attorney and asked for immunity from any charges that may be filed in the case.

When Wetzel asked why he needed immunity if he did not do anything wrong, Marchbanks acknowledged that he