Nick Rossi said he was asked to drive his friend’s car nearly three years ago because he knew the location of the destination they never reached.

Westmoreland County prosecutors said Rossi was speeding as he drove on Arona Road in Hempfield, drifted up an embankment and crashed into a tree. One of his passengers, Lucinda Jones, 41, of Finleyville, died from injuries she suffered in the crash.

“I don’t remember too much of that day. I don’t remember the crash,” Rossi testified Monday in his own defense during a nonjury trial before Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger. Rossi, 36, formerly of Greensburg, is charged with vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and four traffic-related offenses in connection with the Aug. 30, 2020, fatal crash.

Jones, a back seat passenger, was trapped in the vehicle and died in a local hospital several hours after the crash. Her husband, Jeffrey Jones, was a front seat passenger. He was thrown from the vehicle and was hospitalized for his injuries.

Rossi was also injured and was flown to a hospital for treatment. He suffered a broken arm, dislocated wrist and lost teeth in the crash, he testified.

“The last thing I remember is we left my house and they were supposed to see friends and family members. I was supposed to visit my dad, and they were going to continue on. I knew where my dad’s house was, so they asked me to drive,” Rossi testified.

He said his passengers were friends who had been with him earlier that night at his Greensburg home. The Joneses were owners of the 1999 Honda Accord they rode in the night of the fatal crash.

The prosecution contends Rossi disregarded traffic laws when he sped north on Arona Road towards Irwin.

State police Trooper Jordan Shaulis, who investigated the circumstances of the crash, said evidence of tire marks on both the road and in the grass indicated the vehicle traveled between 65 and 72 mph as it left the roadway. The speed limit where the crash occurred along Arona Road was 40 mph, he testified.

“The driver took the turn too fast. He sped off the road and up an embankment and into a tree. This was driver error,” Shaulis testified.

Defense attorney Tim Dawson argued the cause of the crash could not be determined. Dawson suggested the Joneses’ vehicle had unsafe tires and that prosecutors could not prove the crash was caused by other factors, such as deer that could have jumped in front of the vehicle and forced it off the road.

“What you have in this case is a tragedy. They (the Jones family) have every right to know what happened, but we can’t tell them,” Dawson said. “The bottom line is, everyone is extrapolating, everyone is guessing and no one remembers anything.”

Krieger did not issue a verdict Monday.

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