Jury Finds Haitian Trucker Guilty In Crash That Killed Rawlins EMT

GREEN RIVER — The truck driver who plowed into a complicated crash scene the morning of Dec. 21, 2022, hit two EMTs — killing one — and also struck an ambulance was found guilty Thursday on all three criminal counts he faced.

Saviol Saint Jean, 46, collapsed on the defense table in front of him and wept with his head in his arms as the three guilty verdicts were read Thursday in Sweetwater County District Court. It capped five days of trial and nearly a full day of jury deliberations. 

Half the jurors were crying too.

Once the alternate was dismissed, the jury consisted of seven men and five women. 

Now guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated assault, and not moving over for emergency vehicles, Saint Jean could face up to 30 years in prison and fines. 

His sentencing will be set for a later date. 

In the meantime, Saint Jean now returns to jail, where he’s been held during his prosecution in the custody of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.  

Tiffany Gruetzmacher, the EMT who survived the crash, sat with her family as the verdict was read. 

The family of the late EMT Tyeler Harris made it to the courtroom as Sweetwater County District Court Judge Richard Lavery reiterated the verdict, telling Saint Jean he’d been convicted on all three counts. 

Gruetzmacher’s father Michael Gruetzmacher said it’s been a long three years. 

“The unknowns — not only the medical (issues) ongoing, but the what-ifs of the criminal side of things,” he said, adding that, “We met an extended family, with the Harrises.” 

Jason Harris, Tyeler’s father, told Cowboy State Daily, “Justice for Tyeler.” 

The late EMT’s mother Kathie Harris added: “We placed all this in God’s hands, and knew he’d give us what is just and right.” 

The Morning Of

Before 4 a.m. the day of the crash, a man driving a 1999, manual-transmission Ford F-150 in two-wheel drive while hauling a trailer westward into the wind on Interstate 80, jackknifed his vehicle. 

A trucker hauling double trailers, Andrew Gibbs, saw the double-lane blockage and veered into the left-side median, getting stuck in the snow. 

Another trucker working for Rey Logistics, Osvaldo Herrera-Pupo, crashed into the truck and trailer, sending the F-150 spinning into the median and leaving trailer debris scattered in the left lane, while his truck was high-centered on debris in the right-hand lane. 

Gruetzmacher drove to the scene in the ambulance, working alongside Harris. She parked west of the debris in the left lane. 

Other cars passed the blockage on the right-side shoulder, according to Gibbs’ testimony. 

Saint Jean drove into the scene at a still-disputed speed that was somewhere between 47 and 60 mph, according to court testimony. 

He switched from the right lane to the left, saw at least one person and the ambulance, braked, and hit the ambulance and both EMTs. 

Harris was tossed into the landing gear of Gibbs’ first trailer.

Gruetzmacher was lodged under the Vamar truck Saint Jean had been driving. 

Saint Jean “began to call onto God, saying, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, what happened?’” he testified Tuesday.

Gruetzmacher was taken to emergency care with back, neck, head and hand fractures and other injuries. She still suffers from debilitating headaches and other chronic pain, she testified last week. 

The case prosecutor, Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe, theorized in his closing argument Wednesday that Saint Jean was trying to “thread the needle” to get through the other slow drivers, even as he drove upon double lane blockage and the ambulance’s blazing lights. 

Saint Jean’s defense attorney Joe Hampton argued, conversely, that Saint Jean, who is a former Haitian police officer was navigating a chaotic scene for which Wyoming authorities should have closed the road but didn’t. 

On The Witness Stand

Saint Jean testified Tuesday that he lived in Haiti until he was 41.

He’d received training as a diesel mechanic, but then worked as a police officer for his last nine years in Haiti, he said.

Saint Jean said he worked at a “fixed” station, or a post where he had to monitor a set region for suspicious activity.

He moved to the United States on Feb. 16, 2020, after he and his wife considered their daughter and the impending threat of armed groups that wanted to target him for being a police officer, he testified.

“We decided to come here. Because I wasn’t safe there as a police officer,” said Saint Jean via his Creole-English translator.

First he tried to join the U.S. Army, he said. At first his age wasn’t an issue to the recruiter, but the recruiter wanted a green card. Saint Jean already had a work permit, he testified.

Getting a green card took longer during COVID, and by the time he had it, he was 42 and his age had become an issue, Saint Jean testified.

COVID also delayed his learning of English, and he said he resorted to using Facebook and YouTube instructors.

In 2022, Saint Jean took commercial driving courses in Miami, Florida.

Saint Jean received his commercial driver’s license that year and started driving a haul route for Vamar stretching from Chicago, Illinois, to Portland, Oregon, and back, alternating with a co-driver.

The Political Firestorm

During that line of questioning, Hampton touched on a political hot topic: the licensing of commercial drivers who are not proficient in English.

It’s a longstanding federal rule that U.S. commercial drivers should be able to converse with the general public, follow law enforcement orders, fill out log books and read signs in English.

President Barack Obama’s administration paused that rule in 2016 so that highway inspectors could not pull truckers from the roads for breaking it.

President Donald Trump revived the rule this year.

Under Hampton’s questioning, Saint Jean testified that he took the CDL courses and test in English, not Haitian Creole.

He would later testify, however, that he believes Rawlins Police Department Sgt. Christopher Craig misunderstood him during a post-crash interview Dec. 21, 2022.

That was due to the language barrier, and trauma was also a factor, Saint Jean added.

Herrera-Pupo, who was driving the first truck that collided, needed his co-driver to interpret English speech for him, the co-driver testified Thursday.

Early investigative reports said there’d been a “slick in spots” sign ahead of the crash, and that the F-150 caught black ice. Whether ice was a factor by the time Saint Jean arrived remained a point of dispute at trial. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday email that it “has no involvement” with either man at this time.

Tyeler Harris

Harris was born in Laramie on April 15, 1993, his obituary says. 

He grew up in and around Riverton, met his later wife, Ashley, at Riverton High School and graduated in 2012. He later graduated with an associate degree in criminal justice and AA in general studies from Central Wyoming College. 

He was a father to three boys, was warm, talented and kind, his obituary says. 

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.