Slezak case to be heard in September

The case of Chicago trucker Josef Slezak is headed for a September trial.

Cheyenne County District Judge Derek Weimer this morning set two weeks aside to hear testimony in the case against Slezak, 36, River Grove, Ill., who is charged in the Sept. 9 multi-vehicle accident which claimed four lives and an unborn baby

Both Cheyenne County Attorney Paul Schaub and defense counsel Kelly Breen agreed that they were comfortable with the case moving forward, and both agreed that the jury trial should take up the better part of two weeks.

Slezak appeared in court telephonically, as he is being held in safekeeping at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Diagnostic and Evaluation Center.

Slezak is charged with four counts of Class III felony manslaughter, four counts of Class IIIA felony motor vehicle homicide and an additional charge of Class IV felony motor vehicle homicide of an unborn child.

During Slezak’s arraignment, Schaub charged that Slezak had fallen asleep at the wheel when his truck crashed into a line of stalled traffic from an earlier accident on westbound Interstate 80, near the 40-mile marker.

As a result, Diana R. Schmidt, 28, her husband, Christopher Schmidt, 30 — driving separate vehicles while relocating to California from Maryland — were killed, as were their two children, Samuel Donavan Schmidt, 3, and Conner Bradley Schmidt, 2.

Both children were traveling with their mother, who was also carrying an unborn child.

The cause of death for the deceased was blunt force trauma.

Eyewitnesses told investigators that Slezak never stopped for the stalled traffic, and there were no markings on the roadway to indicate that he even used his brakes. During an interview with investigators, Slezak stated he wasn’t listening to his citizen’s band radio traffic, which would have warned him of the stopped traffic.

Investigators determined that Slezak had left Milwaukee at 2:49 p.m. the day before entering the Panhandle region, and have calculated that Slezak hadn’t stopped since leaving the Midwest.

Previously, Schaub contended that Slezak likely drove straight through into Cheyenne County until the time of the accident, listed as 5:19 a.m. Sept. 9.

Such a trip, without a stop for rest, would have been in excess of the federal 11-hour limit for an “in-service” trucker.

Weimer noted that an evidentiary hearing will be held May 8 at 8:30 a.m., at which time a pre-trial conference hearing could be set. Weimer also noted that two interpreters will be present in the room for Slezak, one with counsel and the other to translate testimony and various language during the proceedings.