A three-day jury trial in Columbia County Circuit Court ended late in the afternoon on Sept. 23 with a jury finding 31-year-old Mitchell Merkes guilty of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.
The Rio man was found guilty of all four counts: homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle; knowingly operating a vehicle with a revoked license, causing death; hit-and-run, involving the death of a person; and homicide by use of a vehicle with a prohibited alcohol concentration.
The jury returned the verdict after about an hour and a half of deliberation, at which point Merkes was taken to the Columbia County Jail to await sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 6.
The charges surrounded the events of a 2020 vehicle crash in the area of Wyocena on Genrich Road. At about midnight on July 17, a Columbia County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a call reporting a vehicle crash with a pickup truck near the tree line on the south side of Genrich Road.
At the scene, according to the criminal complaint, the deputy reported seeing the cab of the truck ripped from the frame, with the frame and bed facing toward the roadway. The deputy located the passenger, 31-year-old Zachary Austin, of Rio. In the wreckage, the deputy was able to access Austin’s foot, but the officer reported there appeared to be no pulse. Austin was reported to have died as a result of the crash.
A witness at the scene told the deputy they had heard a crash and came outside to see what had happened, and saw Merkes, whom the witness identified by name, running north into a field toward the woods, according to the criminal complaint.
Merkes was later located in the area where the witness had pointed and taken into custody.
During investigation deputies reported finding digital evidence of events earlier that night, with a Snapchat video showing Merkes doing “burnouts” with the truck as Austin was in the passenger seat, posted at 11:47 p.m. that night.
Merkes was previously convicted of misdemeanor operating a vehicle while intoxicated as a third offense on March 11, 2020, entering a plea of no-contest. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail with Huber work release with his license revoked for 24 months.
When Merkes appears for sentencing in January, he will be facing up to 40 years in prison, simply on the first count of his four-count conviction.
