Jury selection began on Monday in Wayne County Court for the trial of a Rose man accused of causing a 2019 crash that resulted in the deaths of three people, including an unborn child.
Christopher Kirkey faces charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter, manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and driving while ability impaired by drugs.
The charges stem from a May 26, 2019 accident on Savannah Spring Lake Road in Savannah, where Kirkey’s vehicle went off the road and crashed into a guard rail and bridge abutment before ending up in Crusoe Creek. Two passengers in the vehicle, Kayla Mettler and Michael Schute, were pronounced dead at the scene, while Kirkey was flown to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse for treatment.
Mettler, who was originally from Waterloo but living in North Rose at the time of the accident, was pregnant. It is believed that Kirkey and Mettler were in a relationship at the time of the crash.
Kirkey, who was 37 years old at the time of the accident, was arrested by the sheriff’s office in September 2020 after a grand jury indictment and extensive investigation by police.
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