NorthwestDecember 24, 2019

A Carson, Calif., man has a new tentative trial date of April 27-29 in his vehicular manslaughter case — this time in Latah County.

Pompeyo Salazar-Cabrera, 33, faces a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge in the March 31, 2018, crash that killed Hayden Garrett, 19, of Clarkston.

The state argued that Salazar-Cabrera drove recklessly down the Lewiston Hill, reaching speeds of 67 mph while smoke billowed from the brakes of his truck. He did not use any of the runaway truck ramps along U.S. Highway 95, which reaches a 7 percent grade on the hill. At the bottom of the hill, his semi-truck failed to stop at the intersection with State Route 128 and collided with Garrett’s car.

Salazar-Cabrera’s attorney Jonathan Hally asked for a change of venue for the new trial, claiming his client “cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial in Nez Perce County” because of media publicity of the crash and trial, court documents said.

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The media publicity stretched beyond the Lewiston Tribune, KLEW and local radio stations to articles and videos posted on popular social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Hally said in his motion to change venue in the case.

“All of these social media reports specifically referenced that a jury had convicted Mr. Salazar-Cabrera of vehicular manslaughter,” he said in his change of venue motion. “Mr. Salazar-Cabrera will not be able to obtain a fair trial in Nez Perce County, as the potential jury pool will have already been tainted by pretrial publicity.”

Salazar-Cabrera was convicted of vehicular manslaughter by a jury in Nez Perce County 2nd District Court in October, but won a new trial in November from Judge Fred Gibler of Kootenai County when an apparent typo in Idaho Criminal Jury Instructions was pointed out.

Nez Perce County Magistrate Judge Gregory Kalbfleisch set the new jury trial date and venue Monday.

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