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A jury of 12 women found Raymond Mark Derby, 60, of Pipestone, guilty on Aug. 2 of criminal vehicular homicide while under the influence of alcohol, determining that he caused the death of Ann Marie Horsch, who lost her life when the pickup Derby was driving and in which she was a passenger rolled on state Highway 30 near the South Dakota state line on May 17, 2022.
The jury also found Derby guilty of driving after cancellation – inimical to public safety, a gross misdemeanor; fourth-degree driving while impaired, a misdemeanor; and careless driving, also a misdemeanor. He was found not guilty of criminal vehicular homicide – operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner. Derby will be held in Pipestone County Jail without bail or bond pending sentencing, which has been scheduled for Sept. 17.
The jury’s verdicts came after around six hours of deliberation on Friday, Aug. 2. That was preceded by a two-day trial that began Wednesday, July 31.
Assistant Pipestone County Attorney Destiney Grooters was the prosecutor in the trial and Michael Hanson was Derby’s defense attorney.
Grooters called several witnesses to the stand during the trial, including Sgt. Jeff Rowden, Deputy Emerson Winter and Deputy Tony Sievert with the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office; Trooper Ryan Koenen and Lt. Aaron Struntz with the Minnesota State Patrol; Karlie Griebel, a medical laboratory technician at Pipestone County Medical Center (PCMC); and Julia Liebl, a laboratory scientist with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). She also presented several pieces of evidence including photos of the accident scene, video from Winter’s squad car and lab results from a blood sample taken from Derby the night of the accident.
Hanson called just one witness to the stand — Derby.
Law enforcement officers who responded to the crash testified that they observed Horsch’s body lying in the road with a blanket over her, a red pickup with damage to the roof and hood in the road, Derby standing near the pickup and debris all over the road. Horsch was found to be deceased at the scene. The cause of death listed on the death certificate, which was presented as evidence, was head trauma due to a vehicle accident.
Law enforcement officers testified that they observed and photos from the scene showed tire marks on the gravel shoulder indicating that the vehicle left the road and additional marks on the gravel shoulder and on the highway that showed where the vehicle rolled. Struntz, who is a crash reconstructionist, testified that it appeared from evidence at the scene that Derby had failed to navigate the curve, the vehicle had gone off the road and into the ditch, and then veered back onto the road and rolled.
Rowden testified that Derby seemed to be slurring his words and had blood shot eyes, and that the odor of alcohol was detectable on his breath at the scene. He said that based on those indicators and the tire tracks that made it look as though staying in the lane of traffic was a problem, he concluded that Derby was impaired at the time of the crash.
“I believe that Mr. Derby was under the influence of alcohol and it impaired his ability to operate a vehicle that evening,” Rowden testified.
Based on that conclusion, Rowden said he obtained a warrant to collect a blood sample from Derby. According to testimonies, Sievert served the warrant and Griebel collected a blood sample at PCMC where Derby had been taken as a result of injuries from the crash and was being treated. The blood sample was then sent to the BCA for analysis.
The analysis showed that Derby’s blood alcohol concentration was .062 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood when the sample was collected, which is below the legal limit of .08. Liebl testified that by using a process referred to as retrograde extrapolation, she was able to estimate that Derby’s blood alcohol concentration at the time of the crash was between .07 and .10. She also testified that impairment can occur with any amount of alcohol and that by .08, most people are assumed to be significantly impaired.
In the video from Winter’s squad camera that was entered as evidence, Derby could be heard identifying himself and saying that Horsch had grabbed the steering wheel and he tried to pull it back and over corrected.
When Derby took the stand, he testified that he and Horsch had gone to the casino in Flandreau. He admitted that he drove, even though his license had been canceled. He testified that they were at the casino for around four hours and during that time he consumed two beers and two mixed drinks.
Derby testified that Horsch was upset about losing money at the casino, and that on the drive home from the casino, she became upset with him and started hitting him, at one point taking off her seatbelt to continue hitting him and grabbing the wheel. He testified that it was after that when the vehicle drifted off the road and said that was the last thing he remembered until a couple days after the accident. He testified that he sustained a head injury and received 23 staples in his head due to the injury, and that his entire left side was injured in the crash. Derby contended that Horsch grabbing the wheel is what caused the accident.
During the closing arguments on Thursday afternoon, Grooters contended that the evidence and witness testimony showed Derby was guilty of all five charges. Hanson contended that Derby had been consistent in saying that Horsch had grabbed the wheel since right after the accident and that was what caused the accident. He argued that she caused her own death by taking off her seatbelt and grabbing the wheel. He also contended that there was no proof that Derby’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit at the time of the crash.