After a Chisago County jury last week acquitted a Forest Lake man on two of 4 charges stemming from a fatal hit and run earlier this 12 months, prosecutors decided to dismiss the 2 remaining charges against him, Chisago County Attorney Janet Reiter said Tuesday.
The jury on Thursday found Mark Wiosky, 38, not guilty on counts of third-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide – leaving the scene. They might not reach a unanimous verdict on the 2 other charges — second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide while having methamphetamine in his system, Reiter said.
“While upset within the final result, we respect the jury’s decision,” she said. “They deliberated for roughly 16½ hours over two days to achieve those verdicts on Thursday. After review and contemplation, prosecutors didn’t imagine one other trial now would have resulted in convictions on the remaining two counts. Consequently, the remaining two counts were dismissed.”
Based on the criminal grievance, Wiosky was the driving force of a pickup truck that ran over and fatally injured Heidi Lynn White, 51, of St. Paul, within the car parking zone of a convenience store in Wyoming, Minn., on the night of June 22, officials said.
Shortly before 10:30 p.m. on June 22, police received reports that a person and woman had been arguing on the Holiday Gas Station on Kettle River Boulevard and that the person had then run the girl over before fleeing the scene, in line with the criminal grievance.
Video footage showed the truck had pulled into the car parking zone of the gas station and a automobile had followed. At one point, the person got out of his truck and flicked a cigarette contained in the automobile where a girl was sitting. Then, he reached into her automobile and grabbed the keys before getting back into his truck.
The lady got out of her automobile and the 2 argued as the girl tried to get her keys back from him as he sat contained in the truck.
As she was reaching into the driving force’s window of the truck attempting to get her keys, the person accelerated and the girl was hanging onto the door. She fell and the truck’s rear wheel ran over her head as the person drove off within the truck.
Wiosky called police the following day and turned himself in. He said he was driving the pickup and he had used methamphetamine about an hour before the incident. He said he and White had been arguing.
Wiosky’s attorney, Mike Padden, said Wiosky and White’s “friendship had developed into an obsession” by her. Padden said Wiosky did what he needed to do to get away from her and “the one thing he could do was grab her keys because she literally wouldn’t stop following him.”
Padden said the jury looked as if it would agree together with his argument that White’s decision to grab onto Wiosky’s moving pickup truck was a “superseding event” and made him not legally accountable for her death.
“If she had not grabbed onto the vehicle, she wouldn’t have been hurt,” Padden said. “He feels terrible about what happened, but he didn’t imagine he was criminally culpable.”
White’s obituary said she loved fishing and being with friends. “She was at all times ready for a themed party,” the obituary states. “Halloween was top on the list!” Memorials to the Women Anglers of Minnesota were suggested.