There will be no jury selection next week in the criminal trial involving a fatal 2019 Unalaska car crash.
It is the fourth time jury selection has been moved, one of many delays in the roughly five-year case.
At a hearing Tuesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews postponed jury selection and set a new status hearing for 23-year-old defendant Dustin Ruckman, who will now have to be re-indicted before facing trial.
In 2019, police say Ruckman, a highschooler at the time, was driving his truck on Unalaska’s Mount Ballyhoo when it plummeted down the side of the mountain.
Ruckman told police he was thrown from the truck. High schoolers Karly McDonald and Kiara R. Haist were in the vehicle when it fell nearly 900 feet down the cliff. Both girls were ejected from the truck and died in the crash.
Ruckman is being charged with counts of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless driving. His lawyer filed a motion to dismiss the indictment on various grounds, including concerns about expert testimony, according to an Unalaska court clerk. The state prosecutor originally opposed the motion but eventually agreed to it, she said.
Judge Matthews set a new status hearing for Sept. 12, when he told the court he would grant the motion. Once again, a schedule will be set to determine if there is enough evidence to charge Ruckman and ultimately go to trial at the end of the month.
While next week’s jury selection has been postponed, a jury trial beginning Sept. 30 remains on the schedule, according to an email sent to potential jurors.
