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PARKERSBURG - A circuit court judge is reviewing a motion to dismiss a negligent homicide indictment against a Parkersburg man in connection with the death of a woman in the Bureau of the Public Debt parking lot.

Wood County Circuit Court Judge Robert Waters heard arguments Monday in the case of Mark A. Byers, 49, 801 23rd St., Parkersburg. Byers was indicted by the September grand jury on a charge of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, in connection with the March 23 death of 54-year-old Mary Hardman.

Hardman was killed when she was struck by a vehicle driven by Byers in the Bureau of Public Debt parking lot near Second and Juliana streets, police said.

Defense attorney George Cosenza was seeking a dismissal of the indictment because he said the information provided by the state through discovery did not show Byers acted in any way that would constitute "gross negligence," "disregard of the safety to others" and a "reckless disregard for human life" which are requirements to prove negligent homicide.

Cosenza said there was no speeding on his client's part and the parking lot was poorly lit, which resulted in his client not seeing Hardman.

Cosenza brought up questions, based on her injuries, of whether Hardman might have been bending over or doing something that contributed to Byers not being able to see her.

The state has contended the windows in Byers' vehicle were tinted more so than allowed by statute, which could have contributed to visibility problems which prevented Byers from seeing Hardman.

''There is no evidence here, presented by the state, that in fact Mr. Byers violated those statutes,'' Cosenza said.

An expert the state is going to call as a witness who conducted a test of the tinting did so without putting any findings as to whether the windows were improperly tinted, Cosenza said.

The witnesses report talked about the device he used to test the tinting, but did not provide any measurements on the window tinting of Byers' truck or the levels required by law, he said.

''Nowhere in the discovery is it revealed the amount of tinting from their expert or whether or not that contributed to the accident,'' Cosenza said.

Cosenza brought up the autopsy report in which the medical examiner said death was the result of injuries she sustained in a vehicle "accident."

''If it is an accident then my client cannot be guilty of negligent homicide,'' he said. ''This was a horrible accident.''

After Byers allegedly hit Hardman, a witness account had Byers backing up and moving forward three times, supposedly with Hardman underneath and could not hear a witness yelling at him to stop, because his radio was turned up too loud.

At least one other witness is expected to be called to counter this account of events.

The autopsy report said ''Hardman died as a result of multiple injuries she received when she was struck by a motor vehicle, not dragged, not trapped underneath, not caused by moving forward and backwards, but by being struck by a motor vehicle,'' Cosenza said.

Assistant Prosecutor Sean Francisco said many of the issues brought up would ultimately be for a jury to decide whether they have a bearing on the case.

The wording in an autopsy report contains the terms of the medical examiner who conducted the examination.

''That is their term and not a legal definition,'' Francisco said.

Waters said medical evidence should be able to tell if someone was backed over more than once. He asked the state if an officer was present during the autopsy to which he was told they were not.

Francisco said the tinting amounts were presented in the materials the state gave to the defense.

Waters said he would review the case and what was presented Monday and render a decision on how the case will proceed by Wednesday.