Trial for suspect in bus crash starts Monday


By Gretchen Schlosser, West Central Tribune
Published Saturday, July 26, 2008

WILLMAR — The jury trial of the woman accused of causing the fatal Cottonwood school bus crash begins Monday in Willmar.

Ogla Marina Franco Del Cid, 24, of Minneota, faces four charges of criminal vehicular homicide for the Feb. 19 deaths of four Lakeview School students: Jesse Javens, 13; his brother, Hunter Javens, 9; Emilee Olson, 9; and Reed Stevens, 12.

Sixteen other children, ages 4 to 15, and another driver whose vehicle was struck by the bus, were injured in the crash. Franco faces 17 charges of criminal vehicular injury.



Emergency personnel respond to the scene Feb. 19 of a fatal bus crash at an intersection near Cottonwood. The bus tipped onto a pickup truck driven by James Hancock after being struck by a motorist facing 17 charges as a result of the collision. Hancock was traveling in the opposite lane on Minnesota Highway 23 toward Cottonwood. The trial for the suspect begins Monday in Willmar. Photo courtesy of the Marshall Independent
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Collection: Cottonwood bus crash

According to court and state patrol documents, the bus was heading southbound on state Highway 23 around 3:45 p.m. Feb. 19 when it was struck by a minivan allegedly driven by Franco. The bus rolled onto its side in the roadway at the intersection with Lyon County Road 24, south of Cottonwood.

Franco, who is also known as Alianiss Nunes Morales, is also charged with a gross misdemeanor for giving a false name to a peace officer and misdemeanor charges for driving without a license and for not stopping at a stop sign.

District Judge David W. Peterson, who is chambered in Redwood County, ordered a change of venue for the trial, moving the Lyon County case to the Kandiyohi County Courthouse in Willmar. Peterson on Wednesday imposed a gag order on all parties in the case.

The judge denied a second change of venue motion July 8 that was filed by Franco’s attorneys, ordering that Kandiyohi County is the “preferred locationâ€