Thursday's Standard Examiner identifies the three men in the boat that police say killed a Pineview swimmer on August 21.
From the Tim Gurrister article,
Weber sheriff’s deputies have seized the boat believed to have struck the woman. The recently unsealed affidavits have identified its owner as Skyler Shepherd, 21, of South Ogden. In the boat with him were Colton Raines, 22, and Cole Boyer, 29, both of Ogden, the affidavits state.
In an Aug. 30 interview at the sheriff’s office, Shepherd told investigators Raines was piloting the boat when it struck Fujimoto, according to the documents.
Deputies were told all three men were seen consuming alcohol in the hours before the collision with Fujimoto, and Raines and Boyer were smoking marijuana. The search warrants covered the boat, as well as the blood of Raines and Boyer.
The warrants were executed and the blood samples were taken from the two Aug. 30, the documents said, noting that traces of marijuana remain in the human body for up to 30 days after ingestion.
A witness who lives adjacent to the area where Fujimoto was swimming heard a woman scream and went to the water’s edge to see a boat occupied by three males with a woman floating in the water near the boat, according to the affidavits.
“The witness heard one of the males call out, ‘Hey lady, are you alright, are you alright?” reads the document.
The witness then rowed out to the scene as the powerboat with the three males departed. “He was easily able to tell that Fujimoto was severely injured and bleeding and told the 911 dispatcher that ‘her insides were coming out.’ ”
The article goes on to state:
A witness who was with the three men at Pineview said he observed Raines and Boyer smoking marijuana in the afternoon on the boat before the early evening collision with Fujimoto, according to the affidavits.
Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said Wednesday the case is still under investigation with no timetable on a decision on possible charges.
Nearly 6 weeks have passed since the Sheriff's office identified the boat's occupants yet no charges have been filed.
A September 16, 2011 Standard article informs us that two of the men are represented by high power Salt Lake attorney Greg Skordas:
Salt Lake City attorney Greg Skordas represents the two men who have not talked with detectives, at his request.
"I've asked my clients not to make statements until I'm present and can go over the case," said Skordas, who didn't identify his clients.
"If the sheriff's office thought a crime (had been) committed, they should have charged (them) awhile ago. Asking my clients to talk about a crime that didn't occur doesn't make sense."
What say you Ogden Valley faithful. Did a crime occur? If so, what should be the crime and punishment.
1 comment:
Tragedy all around....alcohol or not, swimming around Pineview in the evening or even the day 200 to 300 feet from shore is a sure fire recipe for disaster . Why am I reguired to have a orange flag up when someone on my boat is in the water, yet these swimmers don't have a thing on them to assist anyone in seeing them. We have seen them swimming in that area many times over the past few years as its our favorite boating area...and a area well known to be avidly used by skiers, wakeboarders and tubers. We have been parked out in the middle of that bay in the dark and could hear them cruise by within 30 feet of our boat and had to get a spotlight out to see what it was...thank goodness we were able to see them before starting up and leaving. Saying anything to them fell on deaf ears too. In any event though, leaving someone in the state they did is unexcusable.
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