Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Michael Jayne's attorney said his collision with Sgt. Hooser was not intentional, but was unavoidable after presenting witnesses Thursday.
- Jayne faces multiple charges, including aggravated murder, from the May 5, 2024, incident, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
- The judge will decide whether to order Jayne to stand trial following a hearing on June 18.
PROVO — Attorneys for the man charged with hitting and killing Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser with a semitruck called witnesses on Thursday to present other perspectives about the fatal collision.
Defense attorney Rudy Bautista questioned whether a collision was unavoidable, either with the police cars or with a car coming onto the freeway.
After a preliminary hearing Thursday, Bautista said his client, Michael Jayne, did not see the officer, as Jayne told police in his initial interview. Although he anticipates the judge will order Jayne to stand trial for aggravated murder, he still wanted to present evidence to lay a foundation that could lead prosecutors to reassess their decision to seek the death penalty.
"As we've been trying to explain to the state of Utah from day one, this was never and is not an intentional murder," he said.
Jayne, 44, of Garrett, Indiana, is charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense, and accused of killing Hooser on May 5, 2024. Bautista said Jayne is responsible for his death and "made a very poor judgment call" when he made the U-turn flipping his semitruck around on the freeway in Santaquin. But Bautista said once he started and saw another car coming toward him, he had no other choice. He said it is human nature when avoiding a collision to move to the left, which put Jayne pointing toward Hooser and the police cars.
"The die was cast," Bautista said. "It's an unavoidable, unfortunate circumstance due to poor choices that he made."
Prosecutors called witnesses during the first portion of his preliminary hearing in January, including Utah Highway Patrol trooper Dustin Griffiths, who responded with Hooser and a woman who had been riding in the semitruck with Jayne when he was initially pulled over.
Charles Funk, a mechanical engineer who works in accident reconstruction, testified Thursday about renderings he made of the collision from above and from the driver's seat of the semitruck using footage of the collision. He said there were 16.5 seconds between when Jayne's vehicle began to move and the collision and said the semitruck was traveling at about 15mph when the impact occurred.
He said everything about driving a commercial vehicle is different, the way it breaks and the blind spots, and said that limited Jayne's options. At some point, he said there was no option for Jayne to change his trajectory.
"Once it makes a decision, it cannot make another decision," he said about a semitruck.
Funk said once Jayne decided to make the U-turn, he may have been planning to go off the on-ramp, which he said would be more reasonable than planning to drive the wrong way on a freeway. He said it could be considered a "reasonable response" after seeing a truck coming up the on-ramp to swerve to the left, colliding with the police cars that were there.
Derik Christensen, the driver of that truck coming onto the freeway, testified that he was heading to Yellowstone with his family and as he was getting on I-15 in Santaquin, he noticed two police cars behind a semitruck. He said there was an "odd amount of space" between the officers' cars and the truck and he had a gut feeling to pull over and stop.
As he saw the police officers walking back to their cars with a woman, the man said he thought everything was fine and he began to drive, only to see the truck start moving, making a full U-turn and heading back toward him.
"I'm head-to-head with him at one point," Christensen said.
He spoke about swerving off the freeway to protect his family and said he "had to cut clear out" to avoid a collision as the truck moved suddenly and caught him off guard.
After that, he said he watched in his mirrors as the truck collided with police cars.
Jayne is also charged with two counts of attempted aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies; three counts of theft of a vehicle, a second-degree felony; property damage, two counts of failure to stop at the command of police and attempted theft of a firearm or vehicle, third-degree felonies; and misdemeanors for reckless endangerment, possession or use of a controlled substance, driving under the influence.
The attorneys will provide written arguments on whether Jayne should be ordered to stand trial on each charge, and then return to court for oral arguments on June 18.
Bautista said his client has always been respectful of law enforcement, and when he was interviewed, he broke down crying, hearing that an officer was killed.
He believes Jayne is not guilty of intentional murder, but of reckless automobile homicide. Since an officer was killed, that automobile homicide would be a first-degree felony, meaning it could carry a life sentence. Bautista said with death on the table, justice would not come to the family for years, and a resolution with a life sentence would bring closure sooner.
Deputy Utah County attorney Chad Grunander said after the hearing that the state looks forward to presenting its evidence at trial, including information that Jayne acted intentionally or knowingly.
"The Hooser family, they're frustrated. It's been almost two years since Sgt. Bill Hooser was murdered, so they're frustrated that it's been this long, but they also understand that it's a tedious process. It needs to be done right; no one wants to do this case twice," he said.
