Emily Ashcraft is a reporter for KSL. She covers issues in state courts, health and religion. In her spare time, Emily enjoys crafting, cycling and raising chickens.
PROVO — Attorneys for the man charged with hitting and killing Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser with a semitruck called witnesses on Thursday to present other perspectives about the fatal collision.Defense attorney Rudy Bautista questioned whether a collision was unavoidable, either with the police cars or with a car coming onto the freeway.
After a preliminary hearing Thursday, Bautista said his client, Michael Jayne, did not see the officer, as Jayne told police in his initial interview. Although he anticipates the judge will order Jayne to stand trial for aggravated murder, he still wanted to present evidence to lay a foundation that could lead prosecutors to reassess their decision to seek the death penalty."As we've been trying to explain to the state of Utah from day one, this was never and is not an intentional murder," he said.Jayne, 44, of Garrett, Indiana, is charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, and accused of killing Hooser on May 5, 2024. Bautista said Jayne is responsible for his death and "made a very poor judgment call" when he made the U-turn flipping his semitruck around on the freeway in Santaquin. But Bautista said once he started and saw another car coming toward him, he had no other choice. He said it is human nature when avoiding a collision to move to the left, which put Jayne pointing toward Hooser and the police cars."The die was cast," Bautista said. "It's an unavoidable, unfortunate circumstance due to poor choices that he made."Prosecutors called witnesses during the first portion of his preliminary hearing in January, including Utah Highway Patrol trooper Dustin Griffiths, who responded with Hooser and a woman who had been riding in the semitruck with Jayne when he was initially pulled over.Charles Funk, a mechanical engineer who works in accident reconstruction, testified Thursday about renderings he made of the collision from above and from the driver's seat of the semitruck using footage of the collision. He said there were 16.5 seconds between when Jayne's vehicle began to move and the collision and said the semitruck was traveling at about 15mph when the impact occurred.He said everything about driving a commercial vehicle is different, the way it breaks and the blind spots, and said that limited Jayne's options. At some point, he said there was no option for Jayne to change his trajectory."Once it makes a decision, it cannot make another decision," he said ab
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