UNALASKA DISTRICT COURT

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.

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.

A new judge overseeing a criminal case involving a fatal 2019 car crash in Unalaska has granted the defense extra time to solidify a new trial date. In a status hearing on Feb. 8, Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews allowed Julia Moudy, the lead counsel for the defense, another month to go through discovery materials, gather experts and find a trial date that will fit her schedule. That comes after several delays and complications in the case – the latest being a change in lead counsel for the defense, which led to the appointment of a new trial judge.

Diana Rentaria has been attending hearings, arraignments and trial calls for nearly five years, in hopes of eventually finding justice in a criminal case involving the death of her 18-year-old daughter Kiara R. Haist and another Unalaska teen. In May 2019, Dustin Ruckman, a high schooler at the time, drove his truck off of Unalaska’s Ulakta Head Cliff. Haist and 16-year-old Karly McDonald were ejected from the vehicle and killed as the pickup descended nearly 1,000 feet down the mountain. From that time on, Rentaria says she has been in limbo, trying to adapt to her new life without the child she used to call “Kiwi.” “You just try to live in the world as that other person you're supposed to be,” Rentaria said. “But at the end of the day, you go home and you wonder, ‘Are you okay? Are you hungry? Are you cold? Can I see you in the moon if I stare at the moon long enough?’” Jan. 17 would have been Haist’s 23rd birthday.

Two fishermen have pleaded guilty in Unalaska District Court after violating commercial fishing rules in the Aleutian Islands. Last week, the court…