A beforehand convicted hitman charged with gross vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated in a March 2019 bike crash that killed his feminine passenger in Fairfield lastly has a trial date.
Stephen Duane Chiara, 50, was scheduled to seem Monday for the setting in Solano County Superior Court docket, and Choose William J. Pendergast set it for 9 a.m. Jan. 3 within the Justice Middle in Fairfield.
The choose additionally set some pretrial proceedings, together with a trial readiness convention at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 13 and a trial administration convention at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 16.
Chiara’s trial setting follows his Jan. 24, 2020, preliminary listening to, when Pendergast dominated there was sufficient proof to carry him for additional arraignment on 4 counts: gross vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated; driving below the affect; DUI inflicting bodily damage; and driving with no license.
Throughout the listening to, Chiara’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Pamela Boskin, referring to testimony from California Freeway Patrol Officer John Hyperlink, questioned whether or not her consumer confirmed negligence on the time of the March 27 crash.
She additional argued that there was “nothing that correlated” — particularly the alleged odor of alcohol coming from Chiara’s clothes — to her consumer’s blood-alcohol content material, which was examined and located to be better than the .08 authorized restrict, at .13 %.
Boskin additionally raised doubts in regards to the two blood samples taken by a phlebotomist contracted with the Solano County District Lawyer’s Workplace, suggesting a mistake might have been made.
Moreover, she raised the chance that one other car might have spooked Chiara on the time of the 8:45 p.m. crash, which occurred when the defendant was driving his Harley-Davidson bike east on Interstate 80 beneath the Inexperienced Valley Highway overcrossing and crashed right into a guard rail.
In response to Boskin’s statements, Deputy District Lawyer Susan A. Rados stated the case “rests on whether or not there was one other automobile concerned” that contributed to the bike crash ultimately.
There was “no proof that one other car” might have been concerned, she stated, difficult Boskin and alluding to statements made by a witness, Andrew Lind of Suisun Metropolis, who was interviewed by Hyperlink after the crash.
A CHP report said that “for unknown causes, the driving force was unable to take care of management of the bike and each the driving force and the feminine passenger have been ejected from the bike.”
In response to the DA’s charging paperwork, Chiara was alleged to have been below the affect of each alcohol and an unspecified drug on the time.
Chiara and his passenger, Mary “Max” Hadley, have been taken to NorthBay Medical Middle in Fairfield with main accidents. She later died.
Hadley, recognized as a resident of each Eureka and Fairfield, labored as a self-employed investigator in Humboldt County, in keeping with her household.
Hyperlink testified that Chiara suffered a compound fracture within the crash and he interviewed him on the hospital, the place he smelled alcohol on the defendant.
The officer stated Chiara advised him that he was “touring at freeway pace and somebody reduce him off.” Hyperlink additionally famous that Chiara stated Hadley was his fiancee — an announcement a few of her family members dispute.
Hyperlink additionally advised Rados {that a} skilled CHP investigator, inspecting the bike, decided that “there was nothing actually (mechanically) improper” with it that may result in a crash.
In her cross-examination, Boskin famous that the roadway was not well-lit on the time and {that a} driver of a automobile or truck might not have seen the bike.
She additionally obtained Hyperlink to confess that he didn’t take heed to an audio recording of the 911 dispatch name; nonetheless, Hyperlink indicated that there have been no different vehicles within the fast roadway space on the time of the crash.
Chiara was on parole on the time of the crash, in keeping with the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
As a part of his costs, a petition for the revocation of his parole was filed on Could 23, 2019.
In 1991, Chiara, then 20, was arrested in reference to the demise of a Fortuna girl, Mary Kesser, after he was discovered hiding with a sawed-off shotgun in a closet at a residence near Kesser’s house, in keeping with a Eureka Instances-Commonplace report. Kesser was discovered “overwhelmed and stabbed with a heavy, sharp object,” the newspaper reported in November of that yr. Chiara reportedly was employed by Kesser’s husband, who sought to kill her for insurance coverage cash.
Chiara was convicted in January 1993. He was paroled to the Bay Space in July 2018, in keeping with the CDCR.
