New analysis of blood is called for in Myers vehicular homicide case

A new blood test could be performed soon in a La Crosse County court case concerning a deadly car accident from two years ago.

Twenty-six-year-old Savannah Myers is charged with driving drunk before a 2023 crash in Onalaska, in which passenger Josh Hernandez was killed after being thrown from the vehicle. An attorney for Myers had asked for evidence from the original blood test to be suppressed in the case, and Judge Elliott Levine granted the motion.

The state crime lab is being asked to test a different blood sample taken from Myers at Gundersen, shortly after the crash.

More testimony was heard on Tuesday in the case of Myers, who faces eight criminal charges. Former Onalaska patrol officer Jason Smith, who now works in the Stevens Point area, was questioned about what he found responding to the crash scene, and police body-camera footage of the scene also was shown in court. Smith said a flask containing liquid that smelled like an intoxicant had been found at the accident scene.

No date has been set for the Myers trial. The next hearing in the case could occur this summer.