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The trial that had been scheduled to begin Monday for one of the men charged in the deadly Accokeek street racing crash in February 2008 has been postponed until July after the defense challenged the accuracy of an animated video depicting the accident and sought to dismiss as evidence gruesome photos taken at the scene.

Tavon Jamarr Taylor, 20, and Darren Jamar Bullock, 22, both of Waldorf, were charged in July 2008 with eight counts of vehicular manslaughter, after eight people were killed and eight others injured early the morning of Feb. 16, 2008.

Prince George's County police allege the two men were racing when Bullock's car plowed into a crowd of 200 spectators at the intersection of Route 210/Indian Head Highway and Pine Drive, near the Charles County border. Both Taylor and Bullock pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Bullock's trial had been scheduled to begin July 20. But after prosecutors sought to introduce evidence of an animated video that depicts vehicles allegedly driven by Taylor and Bullock plowing into a crowd, attorneys for the two men agreed with the state to file a motion for continuance to push the trials back. According to court documents filed April 23 in Prince George's County Circuit Court, Bullock's and Taylor's attorneys are seeking a forensic video analysis to inspect the animation for accuracy.

J. Wyndal Gordon, Taylor's attorney, who has an office in Baltimore, said the defense is challenging the video as a "gross misrepresentation" because it failed to, among other things, accurately include the number of people involved in the accident, failed to attribute skid marks left in the road to a vehicle and incorrectly shows the vehicles rolling into an embankment.

"It doesn't represent the scene at the time of the collision," Gordon said. "[The animation] is so cartoonish that it almost looks like a bowling alley."

Michael R. Pearson, Prince George's County assistant state's attorney, said the animation was provided by the county's Collision Accident Reconstruction Unit meant to visually instruct Cpl. Christopher Hinkson's investigations into the crash.

"[The defense] wanted to have their own experts look at the animation we created — they wanted time to challenge the [video]," he said.

According to court documents filed April 21 by Gordon, the video "grossly and inaccurately distorts the evidence," adding that the video "adds additional facts, omits salient facts and generates multiple inconsistent theories of how the incident occurred based upon incomplete information."

In addition to the animation, the prosecution also seeks to include a surveillance video taken from the Beretta gun factory near the crash site that allegedly shows Bullock and Taylor's vehicles speeding along Indian Head Highway.

Pearson is also seeking to include 41 photos depicting the scene along Indian Head Highway after the accident. The bodies of victims — covered by body bags — are visible in the photos, as well as limbs spread across the highway.

According to court documents filed April 3, attorneys for Bullock and Taylor filed a motion to limit the evidence, contending that the photos are "irrelevant because they do not make the fact of deaths more probable," nor do they "make the fact of gross negligence more probable."

Gordon called the photos "carnage," adding that he sought to have 11 of the more gruesome photos eliminated from the trial.

"We definitely want to have a hearing [concerning the photos]," he said.

Bullock's attorney, Janet Hart, declined to comment.

Taylor's case is now scheduled to begin July 20, and Bullock's is scheduled for Sept. 14. Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Whalen will preside over the hearings.