Jurors are deliberating in the hit-and-run trial of a Lawrence man accused of running over and killing a Kansas University student in September 2006.

Joshua Walton, 25, Lawrence, is accused of striking and killing 22-year-old Ryan Kanost at 13th and Kentucky streets, then fleeing the scene.

“You have before you some of the greatest evidence of being incapable of safely operating a vehicle. Go look at (the photos of) the dead body of Ryan Kanost wrapped backwards around a pole,” Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said in his closing argument.

Branson is seeking a conviction of involuntary manslaughter for driving under the influence of alcohol.

But Walton’s attorney Tom Bath told jurors that prosecutors only have presented enough evidence to prove that Walton is guilty of misdemeanor vehicular homicide, which carries a lighter sentence than involuntary manslaughter.

“The evidence is not sufficient to show the speeding was so grossly negligent to justify involuntary manslaughter,” Bath said.

The trial began Monday, and jurors have spent the week listening to testimony about how Kanost was struck by a northbound car while crossing Kentucky Street at 13th Street with friends in the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 2006. Branson said Walton drove off and met friends, telling them he believed he struck something but didn’t know what it was.

Bath has contended that Walton’s friends testified he was acting differently than other times when they saw him drinking. Walton had told police he thought he might have picked up someone else’s drink at a bar by mistake “because he blacked out, went into a delusional rage'” and then drove himself home although he didn’t remember anything about the drive, a police officer testified.

“Something was different that night, and that creates reasonable doubt that he’s not guilty of that (more severe) charge,” Bath said.

Walton reported to the Lawrence police station the next day after his friends saw news coverage that someone had been struck and killed Kanost with a car in the Oread Neighborhood.

An involuntary manslaughter conviction carries a sentence from 38 months to 172 months in prison. He also faces a misdemeanor count for leaving the scene of an accident.

Bath has admitted Walton is responsible for Kanost’s death, but he’s seeking a conviction of misdemeanor vehicular homicide, which is the unintentional killing of someone while driving in a manner that creates unreasonable risk or injury. The maximum penalty of a conviction is 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.