Trial ends without defendant’s testimony

An Oconee County man elected to not testify in his own defense, but his side insists that he could not have been driving under the influence near Westminster because he was not driving his mother’s car. Defendant Russell Alan Tupper was interviewed at the scene of the accident in 2014 and later charged with driving under the influence, driving under suspension, and habitual traffic offender. It’s those three charges that the prosecution today sought a conviction in a one-day trial in the General Sessions Court at Walhalla. Assistant Solicitor Beth Blundy acknowledged there were no eyewitnesses to the Armstrong Road accident, but she asked the jury to not hold that against the investigating trooper who, she said, was trained in accident re-construction investigations. The jury in the trial was expected to be allowed early this afternoon to take the case into deliberations.