A New Hampshire Superior Court Judge nsmed Peter Bornstein ruled yesterday that Volodymyr Zhukovskyy will be tried for murder and additional counts this November

Zhukovskyy, A Ukrainian immigrant, deliberately drove a truck carring a flat-bed trailer into a pack of motorcycles in Randolph, New Hampshire on June 21. 2019. The motorcyclists were all members or friends of the JarHeads Motorcycle Clib on a weekend getaway. The dead are Jo-Ann and Edward Corr; Michael Ferazzi; Albert Mazza; Daniel Pereira; Desma Oakes; and Aaron Perry.

Zhukovskyy should not have been behind the wheel of the truck. Witnesses said he appeared to have deliberately hit the pack. Erin Deveny, the head of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, resigned shortly after the collision.

Earlier Last Year

Zhukovskyy was involved in at least three, red flag incidents earlier in 2019. Two of them were in Baytown, Texas, near Houston and one of them was in Connecticut. His driver’s license was issued in M

About 2 a.m. on February 1, Baytown police were called to a Denny’s restaurant where, according to Baytown Police Lieutenant Steve Dorris, they found Zhukovskyy sitting at a counter “talking to himself and acting strange.” Police searched him and found a crack pipe. They charged Zhukovskyy with possession of drug paraphernalia and apparently released him. Dorris told television station KHOU that Zhukovskyy apparently “has a truck route that includes Baytown.”

On June 3, 18 days before the New Hampshire crash, Zhukovsky, in a possible rehearsal, flipped an 18-wheel car transport in the 1800 block of Interstate 10 westbound near Thompson Road in Baytown. According to both the Herald and the Baytown Sun, Zhukovsky said a car cut him off. He swerved to avoid an accident and over corrected. No one was injured. Zhukovsky was not charged. The car that allegedly cut him off was never found.

On May 11 in Connecticut, less than a month before the Baytown rollover, Zhukovskyy was observed to be “revving his truck engine and jumping around outside the vehicle.” He flunked a field sobriety test. According to the police incident report, he made “suicidal comments” and exhibited “extreme behavior.” He was arrested for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol and released on $2500 bond. He was scheduled to be arraigned in that case last June but never made it to court.

Guilty

Zhukovskyy’s is that rare defendant who is blatantly and unarguably guilty so his legal strategy has been lay low and stall. He was arrested in Massachusetts and waived extradition to New Hampshire so he has only appeared in court once.

His public defender, Jay Duguay, only agreed to the November trial date to avoid his appearance at a public hearing tomorrow. He may appear at a hearing on August 29 if he can agree to plea and sentencing agreement.

If not, he will be unable to hide from his reckoning in November when there will be snow on the ground in New Hampshire and the trees will all be bare.