A grand jury has indicted a man involved in a Lincoln County crash in December, which killed three people.
He now faces charges of second degree murder and first degree manslaughter, according to Lincoln County State’s Attorney Tom Wollman during a 10:30 a.m. Friday press conference at the Sioux Falls Police Department.
Hayden Hall, 21, will be facing an arraignment hearing for three counts of second degree murder, three counts of first degree manslaughter and one count of ingestion of controlled substance in a motor vehicle, Wollman said.
“These charges stem from a traffic incident that took place on Dec. 9 in rural Lincoln County on a paved roadway,” Wollman said. “It’s been a significant investigation to include forensic analyses of cellphones, forensic downloads of the vehicle event data crash recorder (and) DNA evidence as well.”
The second degree murder charge is a Class B felony, which carries a mandatory life sentence for each of the three counts, while the first degree manslaughter charge is a Class C felony, which carries up to a life sentence for each of the three counts again, Wollman said. The ingestion of a controlled substance, cocaine in this case, is a Class 5 felony, which carries a sentence of up to five years at the state penitentiary.
The Dec. 9 situation began when authorities from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office responded to a stolen vehicle report and discovered a Dodge pickup truck which had left 291st Street at 5:37 a.m. that day. The truck struck a field approach and rolled multiple times, ejecting four occupants, of which Hall was one, according to prior Argus Leader reporting.
Two of the four individuals were reported to be dead by the time officers reached the scene, and a third person died a while later. The three individuals were Gerard Duane Muller, 21, of Parker; Kaydence Marie Nygaard, 20, of Beresford; and Collin Allen Hlavac, 19, of Irene, according to the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.
After the crash, Hall allegedly fled the scene to steal another vehicle from a nearby farm operation, but officers found him and the stolen vehicle a while later at a residence in Beresford, according to previous reporting. He sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries from the rollover in the first stolen vehicle and was taken to an area hospital.
Afterward, he was initially charged with underage purchase or possession of alcoholic beverages, consumption of alcohol or drugs under the age of 21, obstructing law enforcement officers and grand theft. He was listed for the bond amount of $19,000.
However, this was not Hall’s first run-in with the law.
Prior to this, Hall was involved in a high-speed police pursuit in November, for which he was charged with aggravated eluding and three counts of abuse or cruelty to a minor. He was being pursued by police for a speeding violation and was reported to have three juvenile girls in the car with him, all of whom were 15, 16 and 17 years of age, respectively.
Currently, Hall is being held in custody at the Lincoln County jail until further court hearings take place.
The arraignment hearing for the December fatal crash case will be held at the Lincoln County Courthouse in Canton, South Dakota, Wollman said. Information on the date of the hearing is yet to be disclosed.
The case was investigated by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, South Dakota Highway Patrol, the Division of Criminal Investigation, Turner County Sheriff’s Office, Union County Sheriff’s Office and the Beresford Police Department.
