Prosecutors to reject Bend woman’s plea in Jefferson County crash, sending case to trial

Published 5:00 am Thursday, October 12, 2023

The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office will not agree to a guilty-plea petition filed this week by a Bend woman charged with manslaughter for a November car crash that killed three Warm Springs tribal members.

That means prosecutors intend to bring the case against Audrey Cooper McHugh, 30, to trial, prosecutors said Wednesday.

“Not a chance,” Jefferson County District Attorney Steve Leriche said, when asked whether prosecutors would accept McHugh’s plea petition. “This case really needs to go to trial.”

In the petition filed in court Monday, McHugh sought to plead guilty to three counts of second-degree manslaughter for “unlawfully and recklessly” causing the crash north of Madras that killed siblings Jesiah Johnson, 13, and Jessica Johnson, 15, and their aunt, Saralee Lorette Spino-McCormack, 29. The court did not accept the petition.

A conviction of second-degree manslaughter carries a mandatory minimum sentence of more than six years in prison.

But prosecutors have charged McHugh with first-degree manslaughter, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, and have accused her of acting with “extreme indifference” to human life.

“The plea she submitted was not reflective of any negotiations with the state,” said Brentley Foster, chief deputy district attorney in Jefferson County.

Lawyers have tried but failed to reach agreements in prior settlement conferences. Foster said she couldn’t elaborate on why the state was not agreeable to McHugh’s plea petition.

Erick Ward, McHugh’s attorney, declined to comment on the state’s response to his client’s plea petition. He didn’t say whether or not he would try to reach a different agreement or move toward trial.

“I haven’t had any direct contact with Mr. Leriche about this, so I don’t know what their intentions are,” Ward said, adding that McHugh’s intentions “are pretty clear.”

McHugh is accused of being intoxicated when she made what prosecutors called a dangerous pass through fog along U.S. Highway 26 north of Madras at around 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 16.

Driving roughly 85-mph, she crashed a gray Toyota Tacoma into Spino-McCormack and the teens, who were in a gold Chevrolet Malibu, prosecutors have said.

McHugh had no prior criminal record. Her next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30.