Jaime Takala Found Guilty Of Three Counts Of ManslaughterJuly 30th, 2008
By Linda Kor
A verdict rendered by Navajo County Superior Court Judge Tom Wing last Thursday, July 24, in the bench trial of Jaime Takala found the 28-year-old Holbrook man guilty on the charges of criminal damage, aggravated assault with a dangerous instrument, two counts of aggravated DUI and three counts of man-slaughter. Takala was found not guilty on two other counts of aggravated assault with a dangerous instrument.
Takala was responsible for a fiery two-vehicle crash that claimed the lives of Leilana Thompson, 2, of Winslow, Stewart Richardson, 26, of Holbrook and Aurora Richardson, the unborn child of Cynthia Schultz, 23, of Winslow, who survived and was the driver of the vehicle struck by Takala.
The crash took place at approximately 11:45 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, 2007, near Navajo Blvd. and Hermosa Drive in Holbrook when Takala, whose blood alcohol content was reported to be more than four times the legal limit at the time of the crash, rear-ended the victim’s vehicle resulting in the vehicle catch-ing on fire and the deaths of the three individuals. A second car was struck by Schultz as a result of the initial collision, but the two people in that vehicle sustained only minor injuries.
Judge Wing informed the court that the law clearly stated that the two charges of aggravated assault of which Takala was found not guilty were a result of Schultz’s vehicle colliding with another vehicle after being struck by Takala, and as such were considered of a supervening cause. In other words, it was an event that operated independently of anything else and became the proximate cause of an accident.
Takala is being held at the Apache County Jail in St. Johns, and will return to Navajo County Superior Court for sentencing at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 26.
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