Man sentenced in ’17 rollover crash that killed his passenger
A man whose negligent driving led to his passenger’s death was sentenced Tuesday to 12 to 24 months in prison and 12 years probation.
Jesse Schuckert, 27, of Mars was handed the sentence by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning.
Schuckert was heading north on Interstate 79 in Robinson on June 25, 2017, when he was unable to navigate a dangerous “S curve.” He had been drinking and was traveling well above the speed limit.
McKenzi Loid, 27, a Kentucky native living in the Strip District, was sitting in the front seat. After Schuckert failed to make the bend, his Dodge Ram pickup struck a guardrail and rolled over before coming to rest on its roof. Ms. Loid was ejected in the crash and died two days later.
The defendant fought back tears as he spoke before the court Tuesday morning. “I understand and take full responsibility for my actions,” he said. “I am deeply saddened for the impact I’ve had on the Loid family. … It’s something that I think about every day and I’ll never stop thinking about it.”
The victim’s mother,
Robin Loid, said the family is a puzzle with a piece missing. “To recover from the grief of losing a child is not possible, Anyone who says time will heal has clearly not lost a child.”
She entered a photograph into the record that depicted the last time she had seen her daughter, when Ms. Loid, her brother, sister and father shared a horse ride on the family’s farm in June, two weeks before her death.
In a nonjury trial on Nov. 6, Judge Manning found Schuckert not guilty of homicide by vehicle while DUI, the most serious charge against him, but found him guilty of all the other counts, among them homicide by vehicle, DUI, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless endangerment. The judge sentenced Schuckert to 12 to 24 months for homicide by vehicle, and a total of 12 years probation — two years for each count of reckless endangerment running concurrent with the prison time.
The judge called Schuckert a “good person who has committed a bad act … with serious, horrific, unintended consequences.”
The road where Schuckert crashed is marked with flashing lights and rollover warning signs. Schuckert was going 90 mph in a 55mph zone.
Schuckert testified that he drank about a dozen 12ounce beers over the course of the afternoon and evening. Schuckert was driving five friends home from a concert that evening.
During the trial, Schuckert acknowledged he was driving too fast at the bend, but his defense attorney, Robert Del Greco Jr., said none in the group, including his fiance, suggested he was too drunk to drive.
Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Todd Stephenson, who did the accident reconstruction of the crash, said Schuckert was traveling 90 mph before the truck hit the guardrail.
According to a prosecution witness, Schuckert’s blood alcohol level was between 0.177 and 0.192. The legal limit is 0.08. A defense expert testified that he estimated Schuckert’s blood alcohol level was around 0.111.
The judge agreed with the defense that Schuckert had been speeding and drinking, but said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Schuckert’s “impairment was itself a substantial and direct factor in the negligent driving” that caused Ms. Loid’s death.
During a statement before the court, Robin Loid said she and her daughter Emily started a charity to honor McKenzi. “Cultivate Kindness,” named after a message on the lockscreen of McKenzi’s cellphone, aims to foster kindness in communities through projects like birthday boxes for underprivileged children and a special needs prom.
Ms. Loid’s employer, the Walsh Group, added her as a recipient at its annual golf outing at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. The proceeds will fund a Western Kentucky University scholarship in her honor, her mother said.