Jamestown woman faces murder charge in suspected DUI crash. Similar case ended recently

A Jamestown woman faces a murder charge in a suspected drunk driving collision, a local newspaper reported.

Tammi Lee Ann Truschke-Harpster, 49, was arrested after the May 11 collision on Highway 108 about four miles east of Sonora, the Union Democrat said.

It killed a 39-year-old man from Angels Camp, the California Highway Patrol reported. He has not been identified.

Truschke-Harpster remains in Tuolumne County Jail without bail, the Union Democrat said.

Murder charges are fairly rare in DUI cases, but this is the county’s second in as many years. Theodore Young was charged in the January 2022 death of Rebekah Gall of Oakdale on 108 west of Jamestown.

A jury in February decided on the lesser charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. A judge last month sentenced Young to 10 years in state prison, the maximum for this violation.

Young, now 64, was retired from the Pleasanton Police Department and had a 2017 conviction for DUI in Sonora. Gall was a 27-year-old eligibility worker for Tuolumne County Social Services.

Truschke-Harpster’s crash May 11 happened just after 5 p.m. on 108 near Draper Mine Road. The CHP said she was driving a pickup truck west when it struck the rear of the Angels Camp man’s car, which had slowed to turn into a driveway.

The newspaper said Truschke-Harpster also is charged with manslaughter, DUI causing injury, and enhancements resulting from previous DUI cases.