Attorneys for Amy Stack, a former Oregon State University student accused in the hit-and-run crash that killed 18-year-old Robin Jensen, say they will prove the accident was unavoidable.

"Robin Jensen caused her own death," Corvallis attorney Steven Black said Wednesday in Benton County Circuit Court.

Stack, 27, faces one charge of felony hit and run.

About two dozen of Jensen's friends and family members were present in the courtroom, wearing buttons containing pictures of the young woman who died last August after she was allegedly struck by Stack's car while riding home from work on her bike.

Black and co-counsel Susan Reese of Portland asked the court to order the district attorney's office to provide various pieces of evidence as discovery, including a water bottle, a water bag, a compact disc player and a shoe found at the accident scene. Those items had been returned to Jensen's family by a county sheriff's deputy, they said.

Jensen was wearing an "earbud" hooked to her CD player the evening she was hit, and the defense wants to determine whether she was distracted at the time of the crash, Reese said.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Wynhausen asserted that those items, as well as several other requested pieces of evidence — such as Jensen's medical records from the year preceding her death — are irrelevant to the case.

Fault is not at issue, Wynhausen said.

"It doesn't matter what reason there was for the victim being struck by the defendant," he said. "It's merely an issue of did the defendant strike the victim, did she die as a result of being struck and did the defendant leave the scene following the incident."

Reese countered that Stack believed she hit an animal.

"Her knowledge at the time is critical," Reese said.

Black also addressed their motion for the court to impose a gag order. If investigators, family members and others linked to the case are allowed to talk to the media and others, he said, jury members could be influenced.

He presented a sheaf of Gazette-Times news articles printed from the newspaper's Web site. The newspaper has printed numerous statements that could not be presented to a jury and some that are simply in error, Black said.

For example, he cited one article printed soon after the accident that stated that a car "smashed" into Jensen's bike and then "sped off."

"All of that implies some manner of guilt and criminal behavior," Black said.

Black also took issue with language gleaned from the grand jury indictment in Stack's case. That the grand jury accused Stack of manifesting "extreme indifference to the value of human life" by failing to remain at the scene of the crash would likely be struck from the indictment if the case goes to trial, he said.

"Sometimes juries believe things that are printed , especially if it's in the newspaper," Black said. "Especially if it's the only newspaper in town."

Benton County Circuit Court Judge Locke Williams issued no order Wednesday, and told attorneys a written opinion would be sent in a day or two.

Stack, who is now living in Oklahoma, is scheduled to be in Benton County Circuit Court via telephone at 3 p.m. April 1.