The drugged-out truck driver who crossed the center line on a northern New Hampshire road, murdering seven motorcycle riders, was found not guilty by a jury, prompting the state’s governor to express “horror,” “outrage,” and “anger.”
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, a Ukrainian national facing deportation, was acquitted on Tuesday by a jury of seven charges of negligent murder and reckless conduct after less than three hours of deliberation after a two-week trial.
After being cleared, the truck driver wiped away his tears, kissed his finger, and pointed to the sky.
He’s been in prison since the June 21, 2019, collision in Randolph, New Hampshire, that killed seven Jarheads Motorcycle Club members, including six former Marine Corps veterans.
The judgment infuriated the survivors of the incident, the families of the deceased riders, and New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu.
‘The Fallen Seven did not get justice today, and that is an unspeakable tragedy,’ the Republican governor tweeted. ‘I share the horror, fury, and anger that so many have felt in the three years after the seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club were stolen from us.’
The father of Albert ‘Woody’ Mazza Jr, 49, who was the first in the convoy of motorcycles on the day of the incident, expressed shock at the jury’s verdict.
‘He gets away with murdering seven people.’ That’s fantastic,’ remarked the father, Albert Mazza. He described his son as a “decent guy” who spent most of his time to charity.
‘It doesn’t make much sense,’ he replied. ‘There are seven dead. There are seven families impacted. It’s odd that he didn’t receive anything.’
Prosecutors said that Zhukovskyy, who had taken heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine earlier in the day of the disaster, veered back and forth frequently before the collision and told police he caused it.
Federal authorities discovered that the truck driver was under the influence of narcotics when he veered into an approaching motorcycle convoy. However, Judge Peter H. Bornstein dropped eight allegations pertaining to whether he was impaired.
The truck driver’s attorneys accused Mazza, alleging he was intoxicated and not paying attention when he lost control of his motorbike and skidded in front of Zhukovskyy’s car.
‘Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. ‘Our trial team did a fantastic job, and we are confident that the State proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt,’ said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella in a statement.
Zhukovskyy’s family, some of whom were present during the trial, issued a statement thanking God, the court, and the defense counsel for a ‘honest and fair trial.’
‘Our family extends its heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends touched by this tragedy,’ the family wrote, describing him as a’very honest and loving guy.’ He would never have done anything to harm anybody.’
Zhukovskyy remained imprisoned as of late Tuesday afternoon. It is uncertain when he will be freed.
Following the collision, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement put an immigration detainer on him, which was executed following the judgment, according to Ben Champagne, superintendent of the Coos County Department of Corrections.
Before the trial, Judge Peter Bornstein dropped the narcotics accusations.
Before the trial, Judge Peter Bornstein dropped the narcotics accusations.
According to ICE, Zhukovskyy has been issued with a notice to appear before an immigration court and will remain in ICE custody awaiting the result of that hearing. It did not specify where he is being detained.
Following the judgment, a member of the motorcycle club contacted through Facebook refused to comment. ‘Jarhead’ is a Marine Corps soldier’s nickname.
The bikers that perished were from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and their ages varied from 42 to 62.
They were part of a bigger group that had just departed a hotel on US Route 2 in Randolph.
Mazza of Lee, New Hampshire, Edward and Jo-Ann Corr of Lakeville, Massachusetts, Michael Ferazzi of Contoocook, New Hampshire, Desma Oakes of Concord, New Hampshire, Daniel Pereira of Riverside, Rhode Island, and Aaron Perry of Farmington, New Hampshire were all killed.
In final arguments Tuesday morning, both sides questioned who was more ‘all over the place’: the trucker accused of swerving back and forth across the road or the eyewitnesses accused of contradicting one other.
‘Those witnesses were all over the place in terms of what they remembered and what they claimed to have seen,’ defense attorney Jay Duguay said.
Duguay further accused prosecutors of neglecting the fact that their own accident reconstruction team contradicted their argument that Zhukovskyy strayed into the oncoming lane.
Meanwhile, a defense expert stated that the accident occurred on the center line of the road and would have occurred even if the vehicle was in the middle of its lane since Mazza’s motorbike was traveling in that direction.
‘From the outset of this inquiry, the state had made up its opinion about what had transpired, facts be damned,’ said Duguay, who also highlighted contradictions between witness stories or when witnesses contradicted themselves.
Duguay, in particular, alleged that the bikers’shaded’ their accounts to protect Mazza and the club. Prosecutor Scott Chase recognized certain discrepancies but urged jurors to consider the facts. People were burying the dead, attempting to rescue the barely alive, and soothing the dying. ‘This wasn’t story time,’ he said. ‘They were up here talking about some of the most horrific mayhem, trauma, death, and devastation that we can even comprehend three years later.’ They were talking about hell breaking out.’
He said that witnesses consistently described the vehicle weaving back and forth before the incident. That conduct persisted ’till he murdered people,’ according to Chase.
‘That’s what stopped him. ‘It’s not that he made a responsible choice to start paying attention or doing the right thing,’ he said. ‘The only thing that stopped him was an embankment after he tore through a gathering of motorcyclists.’
Chase called the effort to blame Mazza a ‘fanciful narrative’ and a ‘frivolous diversion,’ while telling jurors that Zhukovskyy, who did not testify at trial, told investigators, ‘Obviously, I caused the disaster.’
‘He was quite clear from the start that he caused this disaster,’ Chase added. ‘That is what he stated, since that is what occurred.’
An examination by the National Transportation Safety Bureau discovered that Zhukovskyy was affected by drugs and that his 2016 Dodge 2500 pickup truck and trailer crossed the double yellow lines in the middle of the road into approaching cyclists.
The inquiry also revealed that he should never have been driving. According to records, Zhukovskyy was also detained on suspicion of drunk driving at a Walmart parking lot in East Windsor, Connecticut in May 2019 after failing a sobriety test.
According to state records, he was previously arrested for drunken driving in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 2013.
According to The Westfield News, he was sentenced to a year of probation and had his license suspended for 210 days.
That past record should have barred Zhukovskyy from having a commercial driver’s license, but he did have a Massachusetts commercial license.
According to Massachusetts Department of Transportation Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack, the Registry of Motor Vehicles failed to act on information provided by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles about an incident involving Zhukovskyy that should have resulted in him losing his license.
Connecticut authorities notified the Massachusetts RMV, but Zhukovskyy’s license was not terminated owing to a backlog of out-of-state notifications concerning driving crimes. In an examination, federal investigators discovered comparable backlog issues in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and at least six additional counties.
The RMV’s director, Erin Deveny, resigned as a consequence of the probe.