Gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, also known as gross DUI manslaughter, has a necessarily complicated legal definition. This is because it is very similar to a murder charge, but is considered less serious because there was no intention to kill. The law has to be very specific to differentiate between just bad luck. For a DUI to become gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, the four following conditions must be met: the suspect caused the death of someone, there was no malice aforethought, the suspect was driving, and the suspect was intoxicated. Additionally, one of the following must also be true: the suspect broke another traffic law (other than DUI), or the suspect did something that wasn’t technically illegal but knew would be dangerous.
My Mother Lode reports on a man facing gross vehicular manslaughter charges for an alleged DUI accident that claimed the life of a mother.
The accident happened at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 23rd in Burson on Pettinger Road just north of Messing Road.
26-year-old Donald Jackson of Wallace was driving a 1996 Chevrolet Silverado northbound. He was driving behind 22-year-old Dusty Jackson of Valley Springs, who was driving a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado. Donald Jackson crossed over the double yellow lines to pass the other truck.
He crashed head-on into 27-year-old Chelsea Lund, who was driving a 2015 Chevrolet Cruze. He then collided with the other truck.
Donald Jackson suffered from non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
Lund suffered from fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her passengers, 27-year-old Dylan Burch and her 8-year-old son Kaiden, were both airlifted to the hospital.
Both of the Jacksons were arrested for DUI. Donald was additionally charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
It is unclear whether or not the two drivers are related.
