A New Hampshire jury on Tuesday acquitted a commercial truck driver of all charges related to a 2019 crash on a rural highway that killed seven members of a motorcycle club and shocked the state.
After an emotional 12-day trial, the truck driver, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 26, of West Springfield, Mass., was acquitted of seven counts of involuntary manslaughter, seven counts of negligent homicide and one count of reckless conduct. He was driving a 2016 Dodge 2500 pickup truck that collided with a procession of motorcyclists who were members of an ex-marine club on June 21, 2019 in Randolph, NH.
Mr. Zhukovskyy took a deep breath as he waited for the jury to read the verdict in Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster. When the verdicts were read, she looked up, pointed to the sky and cried, removing her glasses to wipe away the tears.
Mr. Zhukovskyy had been in jail since his arrest three years ago, according to WMUR, a television station in Manchester, NH. The Department of Homeland Security issued a warrant for Mr. Zhukovskyy, who was born in Ukraine. He was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, awaiting an appearance before an immigration judge, according to a Homeland Security spokesman.
The family of Mr. Zhukovskyy said in a statement that they thanked God, the court and defense lawyers for an “honest and fair trial,” according to The Associated Press.
“Our family extends its deepest condolences to the family and friends affected by this tragedy,” the family said. They called Mr. Zhukovskyy a “very honest and kind man. He would never have done anything to hurt anyone.”
Jay Duguay, a public defender who represented Mr. Zhukovskyy, declined to comment on the verdict. But Robin Melone, the president of the New Hampshire Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said in a statement that the case had been “tried in the press from day one” and that prosecutors had “expected to bring this vitriol to a guilty verdict. Instead, the jury listened to the evidence, thought critically, and did its job.”
New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella said he believed Mr. Zhukovskyy should have been found guilty and praised prosecutors for how they had presented the case.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” said Mr. Formella in a statement. “We thank the court and jury for their service, and while we are deeply disappointed, we respect the verdict and our justice system.”
In closing arguments Tuesday, attorneys for both sides offered differing views on who was responsible for the deaths of seven people riding their motorcycles on Route 2, about 100 miles northeast of Concord . Some were on their way to a charity event in Gorham when a flurry of collisions sent riders careening onto the road in a scene witnesses described as bloody and chaotic.
Mr. Duguay argued in his brief that Albert Mazza Jr., the president of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club who was killed in the collision, had caused the accident because he had been “riding his motorcycle while intoxicated, not looking where he was going he was riding. , lost control of his bike and slid into the oncoming truck.”
Mr. Duguay also said prosecution witnesses had offered conflicting accounts of what happened before the crash: One witness testified that he saw Mr. Duguay’s truck. Zhukovskyy turn in the lanes, while another said no. The witnesses, said Mr. Duguay, they had shared “completely different irreconcilable memories”.
Prosecutors, however, said that while Mr. Mazza was a “bad choice”, ultimately had nothing to do with the crash.
“Not one person saw Mazza impaired or driving off the road,” New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Scott D. Chase said during closing arguments. “But every person on that road saw the accused everywhere.”
A National Transportation Safety Board report released in December 2020 found that on the day of the crash, Mr. Zhukovskyy had been “impaired by multiple drugs,” including heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. At the time he was working for Westfield Transport, a trucking company, and was driving in Albany, N.Y., and Gorham, according to court records.
Mr. Zhukovskyy also had a suspended license in Connecticut, which should have prompted the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to revoke his license, the report said. But because of failures in the out-of-state driver’s license notification process, as The Boston Globe reported in a 2020 investigative series, the alert never happened, according to the report.
The NTSB also found that the “probable cause” of the crash was that Mr. Zhukovskyy “crosses the center line and invades the opposite travel lane, which occurred due to his impairment due to the use of multiple drugs.”
Last week, Superior Court Judge Peter H. Bornstein dismissed eight counts related to Mr. Trump’s drug and alcohol use. Zhukovskyy at the time of the accident, telling the court that “there is simply not enough evidence that a jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was impaired to any degree.”
Several witnesses gave grueling testimony during the trial, describing in detail the final moments of their colleagues. Photos from the scene showed motorcycles strewn across the roadway and a nearby grassy field, with wheels and various parts missing.
The victims were from New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts and were between 42 and 62 years old. All but one had served as Marines.
One witness, Valeria Ribiera, said she did not know if Mr Mazza was drunk at the time and that he had been “driving straight until he exploded”.
Michael McEachern, who survived the crash, testified that he saw “a big blue-black truck just plowing through motorcycles like a bowling ball.”
Another witness, Dana Thompson, said he saw someone trapped under the trailer Mr Zhukovskyy’s truck had been towing.
“By the time I got to him,” Mr. Thompson said, “he was already gone.”
In a statement on Twitter, Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, a Republican, called the verdict an “absolute tragedy.”
“I share the shock, outrage and anger that so many have expressed in the three years since the seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club were taken from us,” he said. “My heart goes out to their families, friends and loved ones on this particularly dark day.”