A year and a month after three people died in a drunk driving accident on Highway 30 near Keystone, a Texas man who had been working in Iowa has pleaded guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide.
Raul Salazar, Jr., 40, entered the guilty pleas Sept. 11, in Benton County District Court. He had been charged with killing Valerie Ann Schneiders, 22; Jason C. Bessert, 24; and Hailey R. Bessert, 3, all of Cedar Rapids.
Court records indicate that Salazar’s pickup was traveling at 80 miles per hour or more on the gravel of 16th Avenue southeast of Keystone when he crossed Highway 30 and his truck hit collided with a sedan, breaking the car in half, on the evening of Aug. 10, 2013.
Salazar, a contractor who was doing construction work in Iowa at the time, was also charged with preventing apprehension; witnesses of the accident reported seeing Salazar and another man trying to hide bottles of beer in a field after the accident.
Salazar was initially released on a $75,000 bond, but less than two weeks after his arrest, he showed up drunk for a meeting with his probation officer. His probation was revoked and he has been in custody in the Benton County Jail since then.
Sentencing has been set for Oct. 30; Salazar's trial had been scheduled to start at the end of this month.
Comments
Submit a CommentPlease refresh the page to leave Comment.
Still seeing this message? Press Ctrl + F5 to do a "Hard Refresh".
Editor\'s note:
Jerry, good question. The short answer is that each criminal case with a guilty plea or verdict includes a pre-sentencing investigation by the Iowa Department of Corrections, which determines a variety of aspects concerning the crime, defendant and victims. For a more thorough explanation, see: http://www.cjis.iowa.gov/images/pdf/PSI_Specification.pdf
-Editor Dean