• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Mar 19, 2008 - Page: 3B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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LAFAYETTE — Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a man charged in a wreck that killed four people, with some witnesses alleging he was racing and his attorney saying he had swerved to avoid rear-ending another car.

Brian A. Verret, 23, of Lafayette, faces four counts of negligent homicide in the September 2006 crash on Ambassador Caffery Parkway.

Police initially alleged that Verret was racing when he crossed the center line and rammed an oncoming car, killing James Thibodeaux, 26, Carencro; his wife, Danielle Thibodeaux, 23; Jeremy Meche, 27, Carencro; and Sunshine Jasek, 28, Port Sulphur.

Two prosecution witnesses on Tuesday supported the racing scenario.

William “Sandy” Kaplan, who owns an advertising firm in Lafayette, said he was at a stop light about to turn on to Ambassador Caffery when two cars — one believed to be Verret’s Ford Mustang — came “barreling” through the intersection.

“I thought to myself, ‘If I had turned left, they would have killed me,’” Kaplan said.

When asked by prosecutor J.N. Prather whether he thought the cars were racing, Kaplan responded: “Absolutely. Unequivocally. No doubt in my mind.”

Another witness who was driving along Ambassador Caffery also said the Mustang appeared to have been racing with another car just before the crash.

But a passenger in what was identified as the other car denied there was a race.

James A. Haygood III said he was riding in a Honda CRX driven by James W. Scott when a Mustang pulled along side them.

“We just glanced over and looked and we just kept going,” Haygood said.

Haygood said the car he was riding in was in front of the Mustang and he remembered only looking in the rear view mirror and seeing the crash.

Haygood said he could not recall how fast the Honda was traveling but maintained there was no race.