Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
DEFENSE ATTORNEY Daniel Snyder, of Park Falls, Wis., gestures as defendant Jesse Gasper looks on Thursday in Iron County Circuit Court.
By RALPH ANSAMI
Hurley - A Superior, Wis., man who is charged in a fatal March 27 traffic accident in Saxon was bound over for trial Thursday.
Jesse Troy Gasper, 34, faces five charges in the early morning logging truck-car accident on U.S. 2 that claimed the life of former Ironwood resident Amanda Schiiller, 31. She was a passenger in the car driven by Gasper, who was injured in the crash near the Saxon cemetery.
The accident closed the highway for nearly eight hours.
Details of the crash surfaced at the Thursday preliminary hearing before Iron County Judge Patrick Madden, who found probable cause a crime had been committed and ordered Gasper to stand trial.
Josiah Hewitt of the Hurley Police Department was the first law enforcement officer on the scene that day, around 3:53 a.m.
He said he witnessed a damaged car and semi (logging truck.) Gasper was behind the wheel of the car and he complained that his hips were hurting. Schiiller was on the passenger side, deceased.
The coroner's report said she died from multiple blunt trauma injuries to her head and torso, Hewitt testified.
Hewitt said there were drugs in Gasper's system - including cannabis, methamphetamine and amphetamines - when he was tested at Aspirus Ironwood Hospital.
Gasper said he lost control of the vehicle, it crossed the center line and struck the truck, Hewitt said.
Answering questions from defense attorney Daniel Snyder, Hewitt said there was slush and snow on the roadway, but he responded to no other accidents that day.
Snyder said Gasper's driver's license had been suspended for five years because he failed to pay child support.
The lead officer in the case was Cory Mass of the Iron County Sheriff's Department. He said the truck driver, Gregory Verset, said in coming over the cemetery hill, the car was coming right at him and he turned hard left, but "there was nothing he could do," Mass testified.
Verset sustained minor injuries and appeared to be in shock, Mass said.
He said the 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix was impounded in the sheriff's department garage and he did not see Gasper until Thursday in the courtroom.
Mass also described drugs and paraphernalia that were taken from the car, including syringes.
He said the road surface was slushy and wet, but the center line was visible when he arrived on the scene.
Madden agreed to bind Gasper over for trial and entered not guilty pleas for him on the charges. They include vehicular homicide while using a controlled substance, possession of THC, operating a vehicle with a suspended driver's license causing death, misdemeanor causing injury by use of a prohibitive substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
