‘Jarheads’ killer’s trial finally starting
The long-delayed trial of Volodymr Zhukovskyy, 26, the truck driver who allegedly crossed the center line on Rte. 2 in New Hampshire and killed 7 members of the Jarheads motorcycle club, is finally starting. Jury selection has been completed and the trial should start Tuesday. Zhukovskyy (see, it wasn’t a typo) has been in jail since his arrest 3 years ago.
The trial, delayed because of the pandemic and defense problems with finding a crash reconstruction expert, is expected to begin Tuesday and last for several weeks.
Translation: we couldn’t find a crash expert who could spin it our way.
The defense will allege that some of the motorcycle riders tested positive for alcohol and that the first biker hit was legally drunk. The prosecution will show that the truck driver admitted taking taken both heroin and cocaine that morning but thought he was sober enough to drive* when he allegedly crossed the center line and ran into the group.
* The famed “but I’m feeling much better now” defense.
Federal investigators said Zhukovskyy, who was returning from delivering vehicles for a Massachusetts transport company, regularly used drugs. After the crash, Zhukovskyy told police he had used both heroin and cocaine that morning, but that he felt “fine and okay to drive” later that day.
His lawyers, who declined to issue any pretrial statements, are expected to shift the blame to the bikers.
They have argued an independent analysis from March 2020 showed one of the motorcyclists who died was drunk and was the one who hit the truck and caused the crash. Federal investigators found that some of the bikers and passengers were impaired by alcohol, but that it wasn’t the reason for the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board approved a report in December 2020 that concluded that Zhukovskyy’s impairment from the drugs was the “probable cause” for him crossing the center line on the highway and sparking the fiery crash.
Zhukovskyy’s lawyers unsuccessfully tried to get him a bail hearing so he could be released from jail pending his trial. The state Supreme Court denied the request.
Kudos to New Hampshire for denying bail: defense lawyers said since Zhukovskyy was sober in pre-trial confinement he should get out of jail. That argument might fly in San Francisco, but staying sober when you’re already locked up is not a great achievement.
Good thing I missed jury selection, I’d be pulling for that “fair trial followed by a first-rate hanging” option.
Hat tip to Jeff LPH !
Category: Marines, Veterans in the news
Does New Hampshire state Police not have an accident reconstruction team anywhere in the state? New Hampshire is not so big that you can’t be from one end of the state to the other in a couple hours.
Much like the Left seek out scientists that can parrot their preordained conclusions, the defense attorneys probably found plenty of qualified accident reconstruction experts, but they would say the defendant was the cause of the deaths.
Center of target, first shot.
Mozambique Drill. Anything worth shooting once…
Is worth shooting a hundred times?
…I work with – at a minimum – 4-6 big rig drivers a day at my job. A disturbing percentage of them have little if any grasp of English, quite a few have difficulty running their rigs, and the Devil’s Oregano seems to be their self-medication of choice. Yet somehow, they got their CDLs and are out there earning a living and, incidentally, functioning as an existential threat to everyone they go past.
In a earlier time, I drove just about everything but big-rigs. The drivers back then were predominantly very professional and skilled.
Driving on the interstates today, I see anything but predominantly professional big-rig drivers.
Many of the companies have law firms on hand that, as soon as a driver gets a ticket, the lawyers are filing all sorts of challenges, and the ticket is usually dropped before the guy has gotten to the county line.
I am not saying that there are no good big-rig drivers left, but the ratio of good to just flat dangerous is much lower now.
I started out with a NYS drivers license then went to an unclassified chaufers license to drive a trick and then another chaufers license when the company went to heavier truck bodies. before CDL’S, it was class 1,2 and 3
and then when the state went over to CDL’s, it was still class 1, 2 and three and buses were another number. When I started back in 1970, all the trucks were stick shifts. I drove one of the 3 axle trucks with if I remember had 20 or 21 gears and the road ranger I think it was called to pop up the button to split the axles to go into a higher set of gears. I hope I wrote this in right with the split shift and roade ranger and after all these years, I forgot some of it. I mentioned this one time and one of the commentors posted a pic of gear shifting awhile ago.
I took a test for a local outfit here in Chicago in 91, the rig was straight up from the 50’s. To change gears, you had to reach between the steering wheel, grab two levers, and push/pull to get the gears changed. When I got out the evaluator said, “you’re hired,” I said, “Nope, that trucks a death trap.” Filed under: Things I won’t do for any amount of money.
Still remember a late load once in the ’90s – driver was supposed to deliver to Dell at 8am, no load. Turned out he couldn’t read well, and English not at all – when he saw the capital A in ‘San Antonio’ on the sign, he went that way. When he eventually called in, he was wandering around San Antonio looking for Round Rock (for you folks who don’t live in a free state, RR is a suburb of Austin.)
They probably “earned” their CDL in the Land of Lincoln. Remember this scandal?
https://www.fleetowner.com/news/article/21662485/cdl-scandal-drives-illinois-governor-out-of-race
Don’t be so fussy. Someone has to do those jobs Americans won’t do.
I’ve had to go back on the road for at least a little while and some of the “Drivers” I’ve seen at fueling stops makes me wonder if they got their CDLs out of cereal or Cracker jack boxes! Anyway, I’m running for an outfit that’s VERY picky of who they hire, so not much of a problem there.
To hell with a trial, just drop this POS off at the Jarheads Clubhouse.
My father died from injuries he received in a motorcycle crash in 1981. He ran over a railroad tie that some kids had laid across a street (the tie came from a trucking company nearby that used them to choc the wheels of their trailers).
The defense argument in this case is like saying; “Mr Lauer is at fault for not having a brighter headlight on his motorcycle so he could have seen the obstruction in the roadway”.
No….Mr Lauer is dead because some kids did something incredibly STUPID and caused a good man to be taken from his family.
To this day I despise anyone who does something that can have this sort of possible outcome.
I could never be a defense attorney. My conscience would not let me make a living by lying and deception.
I always appreciated a good defense attorney. Especially for the most heinous defendants. Makes it hard to appeal their conviction later.
Rode past the memorial today returning from my CVMA reginal convention.