Jury to receive Franco case this afternoon, final arguments completed
Gretchen Schlosser West Central Tribune
Published Wednesday, August 06, 2008

WILLMAR — The jury is expected to begin deliberating the case of Olga Marina Franco Del Cid this afternoon. Jury instructions by Judge David W. Peterson are set to begin at 1 p.m. at the courthouse in Willmar. Franco faces 24 criminal charges stemming from the fatal school bus crash near Cottonwood.

Franco faces four charges of criminal vehicular homicide for the Feb. 19 deaths of four Lake-view School students: Jesse Javens, 13; his brother, Hunter Javens, 9; Emilee Olson, 9; and Reed Stevens, 12. Sixteen other children, who ranged in age from 4 to 15 years old, and another driver whose vehicle was struck by the bus, were injured in the crash. Franco is accused of 17 charges of criminal vehicular injury. The Lyon County case has been moved to Willmar on a change of venue.

During final arguments, the prosecutor in the case focused on the testimony by the firefight-ers and engineers. “She had to be extricated form the vehicle,â€