Jury deliberates in trial of two teens’ deaths in 2019 Unalaska crash
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Closing arguments finished Monday afternoon in the fatal 2019 case of two teenagers’ deaths in Unalaska.
In May 2019, 18-year-old Dustin Ruckman allegedly drove his truck up Unalaska’s Mount Ballyhoo. Two teen girls, Karly McDonald, 16, and Kiara Renteria Haist, 18, were killed after Ruckman allegedly lost control of the truck, and the vehicle toppled over the cliffside, approximately 900 feet.
Ruckman said he was thrown from the vehicle as it was descending, but the two girls remained inside.
Ruckman was initially indicted in June 2020 for several charges, including two counts of manslaughter, two counts of criminally negligent homicide, and one count of reckless driving. Those charges were reduced in 2024, and the now 24-year-old Ruckman faces two counts of criminally negligent homicide.
Judge Thomas Matthews moved the trial from Unalaska to Anchorage after there was a lack of impartial jurors available.
In closing arguments, state prosecutor Patrick McKay Jr. said this was a tragic case all around and that Ruckman was lucky to be alive; however, Ruckman was still responsible for the girls’ deaths.
McKay said that Ruckman failed to perceive how close to the cliff he was, and a reasonable person would not have driven there and would have been paying attention if they had been driving there.
“If you’re driving in that area and you have to take a hard left to avoid going over a 900-foot cliff, that is a substantial and unjustifiable risk — for yourself and for anybody in that vehicle with you,” McKay said.
Defense Attorney Julia Moudy started her closing arguments by saying that Ruckman was civilly responsible for the girls’ deaths as the driver, but not criminally.
“Dustin Ruckman made a mistake. There is nobody who is saying — I’m certainly not saying — that Dustin Ruckman is not at fault for their deaths. That’s what happens when you have a car accident and someone is killed. The person who is driving most of the time has some level of fault,” Moudy said.
“But the difference between civil negligence which is a person’s fault, that someone did something in error, and criminal negligence is that criminal negligence is when the fault is so great, the error is so great, the disregard in advance, not in hindsight, but in advance in what the person is doing is such a gross deviation of the standard of care that every other person would take that its deserving of criminal liability,” she added.
Moudy argued that Ruckman was driving on a road where others could legally drive. She said the road wasn’t blocked off, there were no signs for motorists, and there were no citations for Ruckman driving up there.
Moudy asked that jurors question every witness they heard from, specifically former Unalaska police officer Theresa Ah-Siu, who was in charge of the investigation at the time of the crash. Moudy said that Ah-Siu started to investigate this accident when an alcohol bottle was found at the bottom of the hill, not when the accident happened. However, Moudy argued that there are no photos of the alcohol bottle, and the bottle appeared old and unrelated to the case, according to the crime lab. Medical records also show that Ruckman did not indicate drug or alcohol use.
The jury left for deliberation at 3:24 p.m. on Monday.
See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com
Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.
