A Prague man has entered a blind guilty plea on a first degree manslaughter charge and his sentencing has been scheduled.
A formal charge was filed March 2 this year in Lincoln County District Court against Joseph Resin Linnhuber. The charge is the result of a fatal traffic collision.
During his arraignment on Dec. 19 before District Judge John Canavan, Linnhuber entered the blind guilty plea. The court found him guilty and set his sentencing for 9 a.m. March 15, 2024.
The judge ordered a pre-sentence investigation. The first degree manslaughter charge accuses Linnhuber on July 28, 2022 in Lincoln County of driving while under the influence of an intoxicating substance, a misdemeanor, by driving a 2001 GMC Sierra on a public road while having an amount of marijuana, a Schedule I Controlled Dangerous Substance or one of its metabolites or analogs in his blood and as the result he struck the vehicle Nicole Hamel was driving, causing her death that day.
The alternative first degree manslaughter charge accuses Linnhuber on the same day of reckless driving, a misdemeanor by driving that GMC Sierra in a careless or wanton manner, without regard for the safety of persons or property, or that violated lawful speed limits, or that exceeded the speed that a careful and prudent person would have considered reasonable and proper.
State Trooper Shayne Ballard, a traffic homicide investigator with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, states in an affidavit of probable cause for arrest warrant the fatal traffic collision occurred around 10:32 a.m. on July 28 last year at the intersection of E. 1040 Road and S. 3500 Road in Lincoln County.
Ballard said the GMC Sierra driven by Linnhuber was traveling east on E. 1040 Road. Hamel was driving a 2009 Honda Civic south on S. 3500 Road, he reported.
The trooper stated that physical evidence at the scene and a statement made by Linnhuber showed the GMC Sierra failed to stop at the stop sign for eastbound traffic, entered the intersection and struck the southbound Honda Civic driven by Hamel.