LEWISTON — An Augusta man pleaded not guilty Friday to manslaughter and other charges stemming from a December crash in Turner that killed a Fayette woman.
Jacob Diaz of Augusta appears Friday in a Lewiston court via videoconference from Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn. He was arraigned on manslaughter and other charges related to a Turner crash in December. Screenshot from video
Jacob Diaz, 24, appeared in 8th District Court by videoconference from Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, where he’s being held in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.
Diaz is charged with manslaughter, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Each of three additional felony charges — two for reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and one for aggravated driving to endanger — is punishable by up to five years in prison.
He also is charged with misdemeanor speeding more than 30 mph over the speed limit.
Diaz said Friday that he expected to hire an attorney to represent him on the charges. That attorney may seek a court hearing to change bail.
Current bail conditions, should Diaz be released from jail, include no contact with the passenger who was riding in his pickup truck at the time of the crash.
Police said Diaz had been racing another vehicle on state Route 4 when he crashed into a 2016 Hyundai Sonata driven by Carol Ivers, 79, of Fayette. Ivers died at the scene.
Diaz and passenger Alana Hartford, 24, were injured.
Police arrested Diaz Thursday on a warrant from his indictment by a Androscoggin County grand jury that had been impounded by a judge.
Since the crash, investigators had been tracking reports that Diaz had been racing the driver of an army green pickup about 9:50 a.m. the morning of the crash.
Police said Diaz, who had been northbound from Auburn the morning of Dec. 11, appeared to have been passing a tractor-trailer at a high rate of speed when he slammed into Ivers’ car as she pulled onto Route 4 from Upper Street.
Ivers, who had been delivering Christmas gifts to her family in Brunswick, was dead when rescue crews arrived.
It was not immediately clear whether police had found the second driver, although that part of the investigation was continuing.
When the vehicles collided, police said, Diaz and Hartford were ejected from the 2006 Chevrolet Silverado Diaz had been driving. Both were taken to a Lewiston hospital and later released.
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