Alleged drunk driver charged with killing family of 4 in crash near Redmond
Published 1:00 pm Thursday, December 28, 2023
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A Montana man faces four charges of first-degree manslaughter after he allegedly caused a crash on U.S. Highway 97 north of Redmond that killed four members of a single family in mid-October.
Jesse Carl Ross, 43, is also charged with driving under the influence on intoxicants, reckless driving and reckless endangerment. He was indicted earlier this month in Deschutes County Circuit Court and arrested Tuesday. He’s being held in the Deschutes County jail with bail set at $2 million.
Ross’s Chevrolet Silverado veered across the centerline of the highway on the evening of Oct. 12, sideswiping a southbound commercial vehicle and trailer before ultimately colliding head-on with a Toyota Rav4, according to Oregon State Police.
Family of four killed in multi-vehicle crash north of Redmond
The Rav4 rapidly caught fire. All four family members from Troutdale — Gary Rutledge, 57, Michelle Jean Windsor Rutledge, 53, and their two children, Kate Rutledge, 15, and Ryan Rutledge, 17 — were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.
Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels stated that evidence indicates that Ross was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol during the car crash.
Ross’s was the latest in a series of cases in which a person is accused of killing someone while driving under the influence.
“DUI is the most frequent trial we have here in Deschutes County,” said Gunnels. “We file over a thousand DUIs a year here.”
In January, a Jefferson County jury found Brandon Kern, 31, of La Pine, guilty of manslaughter stemming from a 2020 drunken driving crash on U.S. Highway 97 near Terrebonne that killed one woman and seriously injured two people.
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In June, Flynn Lovejoy, 22, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in a drunk driving crash on Cascade Lakes Highway near Seventh Mountain Resort that killed a cyclist.
In October, Audrey Cooper McHugh, 30, sought to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter for a November 2022 car crash that killed three Warm Springs tribal members, but prosecutors rejected the petition, sending the case to trial.
McHugh, who is charged with first-degree manslaughter, is accused of being intoxicated when she made what prosecutors called a dangerous pass through fog along U.S. Highway 26 north of Madras before crashing into the car carrying two teens and their aunt at around 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 16.
