Prosecutor Ali Neuffer alleges Botello drove carelessly -- with a dirty, cracked windshield and a reclined seat while low on gas and speeding to his downtown job.

Defense lawyer Neil Levinson -- who has consistently attacked police investigation tactics in the case -- has maintained his client was not late for work and did nothing wrong.

While most of the testimony thus far has focused on what Botello did or did not see, the prosecutor put another officer on the stand in an attempt to show the motorist was also distracted by the music he played while driving.

Police Sgt. Jim Pfleging described the volume of the SUV sound system as "deafening" when the vehicle was started up by officials at the scene following the collision. "It was extremely loud. You could not hear anything inside or outside the vehicle."

Thursday's testimony drew a pointed start to the cross examination of Hunter by Levinson, who questioned whether the detective told the emotional Botello he did not have to answer questions about what happened without a lawyer present, or at all.

"You never told him he was free to go at any point, did you?" Levinson asked.

"I requested our interviews with him," Hunter said. "I wasn't demanding or ordering it."

Hunter testified that he recorded two-and-a-half hours of his conversation with Botello without the defendant's knowledge. One portion of the conversation occured in a squad car at Cottage Hospital where a sample of Botello's blood was taken -- which showed he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol -- the other at the downtown Police Department.

During this time, the defendant said he witnessed other drivers struggle with morning sunlight at the location of the collision, Hunter testified.

Botello offered varying accounts of when he himself was blinded by sunlight, Hunter said, adding it was unclear from the defendant's statements if this occured seconds before or instantly before the collision.

"He said he was accelerating at the time of the accident, and that his speed was approximately 30 mph," Hunter said. "The sun didn't affect his speed. He didn't reduce speed."

An eyewitness on Wednesday told the court Botello raised his right arm toward the sun shortly before the collision. On Thursday, Hunter said Botello made no mention of attempting to shade his eyes before the accident.

Among his speculations, Hunter said, Botello indicated that "curves" or "dips" where the road begins to incline along the asphalt stretch obscure cars, bikes or people.

Referencing photos of that stretch, Neuffer asked whether such "curve and dip theories" are possible.

"I pointed out that these things weren't there," Hunter said. "He (Botello) agreed with me.

"He said he had a dirty windshield and that might have been quote, unquote, 'it,' " Hunter said.

"He speculated that there might have been a vehicle on the roadway adjacent to the victim . . . and that this vehicle or vehicles were obscured from the defendant's vision," Hunter testified. "He wasn't confident of this. He concluded that by saying, 'I don't know why I didn't see him.' "

Levinson's cross examination appeared geared toward convincing jurors that Hunter unfairly coaxed information from the defendant as he reeled from what had occured. Hunter returns to the stand Monday.

During the trip from Cottage to the Police Department, Hunter stopped at a gas station to buy Botello a Gatorade with a "general intent" to comfort the defendant, the detective testified.

If this was so, why hadn't Hunter invited Botello's mother to come along for the interview, since she had come to the collision scene to offer her son moral support, Levinson asked.

"It didn't occur to me," Hunter responded.