HELENA — Nine jurors in Broadwater County unanimously ruled there was no criminal activity in an officer-involved crash that led to the death of one man.
With the crash occurring in Broadwater County, the Sheriff and Coroner of Lewis and Clark County, Leo Dutton, presided over the case.
The incident happened almost a year ago, on January 18th, when 30-year-old Tyler Leslie led Montana Highway Patrol troopers and Broadwater County deputies in a high-speed chase on Highway 287 north of Townsend.
"All I knew is that someone had been possibly running someone off the road at some point, and someone had reported seeing the driver opening the door and vomiting out of the vehicle while they were driving," said Trooper Dietrich Lind with MHP.
He was one of the responding officers and spoke with Leslie at the initial crash site.
Lind said, "The way I was talking to him and our interactions, he seemed extremely cooperative and very polite."
Trooper Lind suspected Leslie was intoxicated, and Leslie admitted he was drinking when the trooper asked.
When he moved his car closer to Leslie's, Leslie fled.
During the pursuit, Trooper Lind said speeds reached 100 MPH.
Eventually, Leslie's truck swerved into oncoming traffic, hitting a Broadwater County deputy's car.
Leslie died in the crash, and the deputy survived but suffered serious injuries.
The Montana Highway Patrol investigated the collision with the deputy's cruiser.
Investigators say tire tracks and video evidence from Trooper Lind's car showed no obstructions in the road that Leslie could have been avoiding.
A separate investigation by the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) found open alcoholic beverages in Leslie's truck.
They also found some Facebook posts he made on the day of the crash.
Sergeant Ryan Eamon with DCI read one of the posts saying, "' I know none of this makes sense right now, and I'm sorry that I took the easy way out, but I can't continue to do what I'm doing because I am weak and hurting so much.'"
An autopsy showed that Leslie's cause of death was multiple blunt-force trauma.
He had a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit, and he had SSRIs in his system, which are commonly used to treat people with depression.
DCI found that Leslie was not wearing his seatbelt during the crash.
"All the evidence of this crash suggested that it was intentional," Eamon said.
The jury found Leslie's death was self-inflicted and not caused by the criminal actions of another person.
