News

Acosta comes to court and pleads 'not guilty'

By Scott Wagar

09/25/2012

The preliminary hearing for Juan Acosta took place this past week did not move forward after Acosta waived his rights to a preliminary hearing. Instead, Acosta pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and was placed back into the custody of the sheriff. The court hearing lasted about 10 minutes.
At the present moment, no trial date has been set for Acosta, but it will take place sometime next spring.

Acosta, 30, of Newburg, N.D., lost control of a truck he was driving at Hahn’s Bay and drove over a tent, which fatally injured two young children, while injuring another child and an adult.
Acosta was charged with two counts of manslaughter (Class B felonies), two counts of reckless endangerment (Class C felonies), unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (Class C felony) and driving under the influence (Class B misdemeanor).  

The boys who were killed in incident, Alaries Ruiz, age five and Cyris Ruiz, age nine, were bothers. The adult male, Juan Ruiz, was the father to Alaries and Cyris.

Since the accident, Juan and the young juvenile who were injured in the incident, are recovering from their injuries.