Missing warrant has delayed trial in vehicular homicide

Accident killed two women aged 18 and 19 

The district attorney calls it human error on the part of some police officers — an error in a homicide case.

A trail in a Trempealeau County crash that killed two women, who were 18 and 19 years old, has been delayed because of questions surrounding the warrant to get a blood draw from the driver.

Josue Cruz Escobar of Arcadia, Wis., is accused for drunk driving Jan. 1, 2015, causing a multi-car crash that also left another victim with brain damage.

DA Taavi McMahon said many hearings have been held to prove that police had a signed warrant to get a blood sample from Escobar when he was being treated in Rochester, Minn.

“Testimony from Rochester Mayo nurses, who were on duty that day,” McMahon explained, “who testified that the fact they had seen a warrant, they read the warrant and it was served upon the defendant while he was undergoing medical treatment.”

Escobar’s defense disputed the legality of the blood draw, since only the defendant had a signed warrant. Police made an error by not keeping a signed version of the warrant. McMahon says the error led to a dispute between judges in two states, and a series of court hearings:

“It’s true,” McMahon said, “there is actually no physical piece of paper in evidence or in the court records in Minnesota of this warrant.”

Last week, Judge Horne ruled that witnesses provided proof of the warrant’s existence.

“Judge Horne signed that in Wisconsin but a Minnesota judge denied our request, so we were forced to rely only upon the testimony of the nurses and law enforcement regarding the existence of the warrant,” McMahon said.

It was 12:20 p.m. Jan. 1, 2015, when Escobar’s Chrysler 300 was southbound on Hwy. 93 in the town of Chimney Rock when it crossed the centerline. His car struck a Honda Accord and continued in the northbound lane, hitting a Ford Edge, according to the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Dept.

In Escobar’s car were 19-year-old Lizabeth Gonzales and Leslie Flores, 18, both of Independence. They were both pronounced dead at the scene.

Escobar, then 30, and Jonathan Ochoa, were transported by helicopter to Mayo in Rochester, Minn., where the blood draw is said to have taken place.

The Accord driver suffered minor injuries. One of the Edge drivers was flown to Mayo in Eau Claire, while the other was transported there by ambulance.