LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Wednesday’s emotional witness testimonies and evidence took the jury back to the scene of the crash that killed LMPD Detective Deidre Mengedoht in 2018.

Roger Burdette is charged with murder in the death of Mengedoht and DUI. 

"Calm" is the word used by witnesses including bystanders and authorities to describe Roger Burdette in the moments after he hit Mengedoht’s cruiser.  

Burdette’s attorneys stated visibility of the car from outside the belvedere made it hard to see the vehicle, but Quentin Brady, the man who was pulled over by Mengedoht before her death said when he pulled to the side of the road, only half of his truck was under the belvedere. 

“I was watching the rear view because I knew it wasn’t a safe spot,” Brady said. “I was looking behind her for cars coming and I saw the semi coming and next thing I know, we were shoved forward and her car slid in front of our truck.”

His young daughter, 17-year-old sister-in-law, and girlfriend Jasmine Parks were also in Brady’s truck.

Parks said while yanking her daughter from the backseat, they saw smoke and flames getting in their truck and Mengedoht’s car slid in front of theirs. 

Jurors could hear Angela Lynn Scott screaming “get out of there” to her husband Jeff Scott on cell phone footage she shot when her husband hurried to help those involved in the accident. 

“Brings back bad memories because (Burdette) stated with his hands on his head I said what’s wrong and he said there’s a body in there,” Jeff said, tearing up. “I know this sounds hero-ish, but I really wanted to try to save them.”

The Scotts were traveling down I-64 when they saw smoke and flames coming from a car. 

“Sir, sir can you turn off the truck? You have liquid all over the place. Can you turn it off?” said Angela in the video. 

“I said you need to turn off the truck and he says I have to pullover first. I said you are pulled over and he looked at me and it’s like I had to repeat to him turn off the truck and he just kind of looked around and the engine was still on,” says Scott. 

She said he eventually turned the truck off. 

The Scotts provided authorities footage from their vehicle’s dashcam and cell phone from the scene.  LMPD Sergeant Michael Johnson also said Burdette was slow to respond when he talked to him. 

“He seemed a little slow, a little sluggish. It just seemed like he was not processing the information I was giving him as fast as I would typically encounter on a regular person,” Johnson said. 

In addition, Johnson said Burdette did not follow instructions, shuffled steps and used his arms for balance during field sobriety tests.

“I had reason to believe that he had taken some sort of narcotic based on the constriction of the pupil and his demeanor at the scene of being nonchalant, relaxed,” Johnson said. “I saw no emotion from him the entire time.”

Burdette’s attorney argued that his hearing problem could be why he was slow to respond, but Johnson disagrees. 

Burdette told authorities about a hip and shoulder issue he has. Johnson says medical issues like that can impact balance but that is only a portion of what’s inspected in sobriety tests.