MOUNT BALLYHOO

The State of Alaska will retry Dustin Ruckman in a fatal 2019 Unalaska car crash, following a hung jury mistrial earlier this year. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews scheduled a tentative April 2026 trial date for Ruckman during a status hearing Tuesday, though Matthews said his goal is to have the retrial sooner.

A group of Anchorage jurors was unable to come to a unanimous decision in a nearly six-year long homicide case. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews declared a mistrial Friday morning for a young man involved in a 2019 Unalaska car crash case. Following more than three days of deliberation and over a week in trial, 24-year-old Dustin Ruckman was not convicted for his involvement in the deaths of two Unalaska teen girls, but he also hasn’t been acquitted.

The fate of a young man behind the wheel in a fatal 2019 Unalaska car crash is now in the hands of an Anchorage jury. Dustin Ruckman, 24, faces two counts of criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of two Unalaska teen girls.

Attorneys are expected to give their closing arguments Monday for a case involving a fatal 2019 car crash on Unalaska’s Mount Ballyhoo. However, they will first have to hear whether or not the presiding judge believes there is enough evidence to support a conviction.

The trial began Wednesday in Anchorage for a young man facing felony charges in a fatal Unalaska car crash case.Dustin Ruckman is charged with two counts of criminally negligent homicide for his involvement in the 2019 crash on Mount Ballyhoo. He was 18 at the time of the incident and was driving the truck that eventually plummeted about 900 feet down the side of the cliff. Ruckman sustained minor injuries, according to police, but two teenage girls were thrown from the truck and died in the fall: Kiara Rentaria Haist, 18, and Karly McDonald, 16.

After three long days of jury selection in Unalaska, court officials will return to Anchorage to restart their search and begin the trial for a young man involved in a fatal 2019 car crash. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews told the court Friday afternoon that after questioning around 100 people this week, they could not find enough local impartial jurors.

Charges against the young man involved in a fatal 2019 Unalaska car crash have been reduced, more than four years after he was originally indicted.Dustin Ruckman, who is now 23 years old, was originally charged in 2020 with two counts of manslaughter, two counts of criminally negligent homicide and one count of reckless driving. He now faces just two counts of criminally negligent homicide.

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.

After another delay in the five-year case, jury selection is back on the calendar for the trial involving a fatal Unalaska car crash.A jury is set to be selected next month in the criminal case against the driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Dustin Ruckman. Police say Ruckman, a high schooler at the time, said he was thrown from his truck when it plummeted down the Ulakta Head Cliff side of Unalaska’s Mount Ballyhoo on May 9, 2019. Karly McDonald, 16, and Kiara R. Haist, 18, were in the vehicle when it fell nearly 900 feet down the cliff. Both girls were ejected from the car and died in the crash.

At a status hearing Friday, state prosecutor Patrick McKay Jr. with the District Attorney’s Office in Anchorage told the court that the Unalaska Police Department has new information related to the trial of Dustin Ruckman. The trial has been ongoing for five years. The primary investigating officer on the case thought there were missing pages from her report, according to McKay. On top of that, McKay said the police department found a drawer of records, including things like disks, related to the case — most of which is just copies of material they already had. In light of the newly discovered information though, McKay asked the department to send over all of their material for the case. According to Unalaska City Manager Bil Homka, the city recently became aware of the material and is investigating the situation.