PROVO — Theresa Ratliff was coaching vaulting while her son was playing nearby when she heard "what sounded like thunder, like metal on metal" for about five seconds.

She checked to make sure the girls she was coaching were OK, then went to find 3-year-old Odin — looking first in the round pen where he typically played with toy tractors.

"I turned to the right, where that round pen was, and it was gone. The tractors were still there," she said.

Ratliff said she remembers screaming and running to her son.

"He was blue; there was no life in him," the mother testified on Thursday, saying she did CPR for a minute still, knowing it was futile, and then lifted a panel off the boy's friend, Hunter Jackson, who was also blue and lifeless.

"I just remember screaming. ... I just sat there, and I held them," she said.

Eleven jurors — three women and eight men — are hearing the testimony on the second day of trial, Friday. Eight of them will be tasked with deciding whether Kent Cody Barlow, 28, is guilty of two counts of murder, based on depraved indifference, as he is charged, or, as Barlow's attorneys have suggested, guilty of lesser charges of manslaughter or automobile homicide.

On May 2, 2022, Barlow was driving a car that left the roadway near Cedar Valley Stables, 2333 N. 16000 West, in Eagle Mountain. The vehicle crashed through fences and came to a stop in a horse pen, running over and killing Odin Ratliff and Hunter Jackson, who were both 3 years old.

Odin and Hunter had been playing in a horse corral when they were hit. Ratliff said it was normal for Odin to hang out around the area while she taught. She said her son knew how to stay safe from the horses, and she had never been fearful of the boys' safety.

Ratliff had recently met Hunter and decided he and her boy would be friends. She had brought extra fruit snacks that day for Hunter, assuming he would be there.

Brooke Jackson, Hunter's mom, talked about Hunter's "barn boots" that he considered a work uniform and how he took helping at the stables seriously, taking care of the cat, picking up eggs and feeding carrots to the horses.

She had checked on the boys a few minutes before and was sweeping in the barn when she heard a loud sound, felt the ground shaking and then heard a loud "bam" before silence.

"It was loud like thunder, but it wasn't thunder, and it just didn't make sense on what we were hearing, because it was a sound and a feeling," Jackson said.

She went outside quickly and saw that the pen the boys were in wasn't there, but their toys were, saying it was confusing.

Jackson went to check for the boys inside before hearing Ratliff scream. At that point, she said she knew it was bad, that her son was likely dead, but she wasn't sure until later when she heard someone ask for new blankets to put over the boys' bodies.

'Like talking to a brick wall'

Michael Higbee, a passenger in Barlow's car, testified about watching Barlow "thread the needle" as they followed him to Eagle Mountain, and later racing him. After that, Higbee said he and the two others with him got into Barlow's car to check out modifications Barlow had made.

Higbee said he was worried about Barlow's driving and told him six times to "chill out," getting louder each time until he was shouting.

"I ... remember repeatedly hitting his chair … asking him to slow down," Higbee said. But Barlow did not respond, Higbee testified, saying it was "like talking to a brick wall."

Higbee said he felt the tires skid on curves and was afraid of dying before the car hit a bump, went into the air and crashed through fences, at which point he lost consciousness. He said he thought the screaming from the people coming out of the stables was concern for their horses and didn't realize the car had hit the children until he was told after he left the hospital.

Barbara Brooks testified that she was in the arena, where vaulting practice was happening, when she heard the "awful metal crushing sound," and looked up to see if the metal roof was loose. After an "eerie silence," she left the building and saw two men "stumbling around" and dirt in the air. She asked what they were doing and saw a third man before noticing the car and calling 911.

On the call, which was played for the jurors, she audibly realizes the two boys are dead. Multiple people in the courtroom, including Brooks, wiped tears from their eyes as she told the operator the boys are dead multiple times as help was on its way.

Deputy James Bingham was the first officer on the scene and said, as he drove up, he was told by multiple people that "two babies" were dead. He said he could tell the boys were dead when he first saw them, without walking all the way up to them, and he went to check on the people who were in the car.

Bingham said he was focused on providing information to get sufficient medical care to those who were hurt.

Body camera footage shows Tanner Edwards, with the Utah County Sheriff's Office, placing a blanket over where the boys' bodies were lying. Edwards testified Friday that many people were in shock, and the dust from the crash was still settling when he got there.

"You could hear metal creaking from the stables, you could smell vehicle fluids; it was just kind of eerie," Edwards said.

Witnesses share what they saw

Emily Jackson, Hunter's oldest sister, had a job cleaning stables. On that day, she said she was working when she thought the sound was a horse kicking metal panels. When she went out to see if horses were fighting, she said she saw a car upside down in the horse stalls and, shortly after, the two boys in one of those stalls.

Another sister, Carly Jackson, said she was in the horse stalls feeding a horse and saw the red lights of a perpendicular car coming toward her. After the crash, she said the roof was slanted, falling toward the ground, just one stall closer to the crash than where she was.

Brian Winther, a father of one of the vaulters, who has emergency medical experience, said the first thing he saw after hearing the crash and going outside was a vehicle on its top. He helped multiple passengers out of the car, ensuring they were OK, and determined the driver was unresponsive but breathing.

After hearing Ratliff yell, "Oh, my babies!" Winther said he saw the Tonka trucks in the round pen, grabbed someone to stay with Barlow and went to Ratliff.

Winther began testifying about the condition the boys were in, talking about limbs at grotesque angles, but then said he had repressed the event so much over the last three years. He said he could tell the boys were dead but still checked for a pulse.

Melissa Chevrier was coming to the stables to care for a horse she boarded there and testified about seeing a car run through the stop sign, where she should have had the right of way, and then a cloud of dust. It wasn't until she pulled into the stables that she realized the dust wasn't just the car malfunctioning, but the stalls had been knocked over.

While checking to see if the horses were OK, Chevrier heard Odin was hurt and followed directions to go inside the barn.

Another woman, Jennifer Furniss, said she was afraid for herself and her son when Barlow's car went past them minutes earlier. She testified that the car was near the middle of the road and going "extremely fast," saying it sounded like a tornado and shook her car. Shortly after, when she saw pictures of the crash on Facebook, she recognized the car.

Barlow is charged with two counts of murder, a first-degree felony, and possession or use of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor. Testimony in his trial will continue on Monday.

Opening arguments:

Murder or manslaughter? Jurors asked to choose fate of Orem man who killed 2 boys in crash

Jurors were asked Thursday to consider finding Kent Cody Barlow guilty of two counts of murder or two counts of manslaughter for causing the deaths of two 3-year-old boys.

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