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The Indiana Court of Appeals will be traveling to South Adams High School on Thursday to hear oral arguments in a case involving a fatal car accident.
According to court records, Sobirjon Rakhimov was working as a commercial trucker when he drove his truck into another vehicle on U.S. Highway 30 in Whitley County, with the collision killing Jerome Wait.
Rakhimov allegedly drove longer than allowed by federal law over multiple days and falsified his driving logs.
He told responding officers that he had looked at his GPS and when he looked up he saw Wait’s car braking, but could not stop in time to avoid the crash.
An accident reconstructionist opined at trial that the crash was caused because Rakhimov was distracted or drowsy and that he did not apply his brakes until after striking Wait’s vehicle.
Following a jury trial, Rakhimov was convicted of two counts of reckless homicide.
On appeal, Rakhimov claimed the evidence was insufficient because the state didn’t present evidence that his driving was impaired by fatigue.
He also claimed that the trial court erroneously rejected certain jury instructions regarding inadvertence and lack of attention.
Chief Judge Robert Altice and Judge Cale Bradford and Dana Kenworthy will be hearing arguments in the case at 10 a.m. on April 10 in Burkhalter Auditorium of South Adams High School in Berne.
The case is Sobirjon Rakimov v. State of Indiana, 24A-CR-2172.
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