Jury Selected in Party Ranch Manslaughter Trial

The jury has been selected for the trial of Allen Lee Schmidt, a man charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after pushing a disabled truck into Christoval Road that caused the death of motorcyclist Donal Di Pietro.

A complaint filed with the court explains the curious circumstances of Di Pietro’s death as occurring outside the Party Ranch on the night of March 9, 2013. According to the complaint, Schmidt had consumed alcoholic beverages inside the club, then went outside to aid Malcom McBurnett in starting his white Chevy truck.

The complaint states that when the vehicle could not be started with jumper cables, Schmidt pushed the truck into the road using his own vehicle. McBurnett’s vehicle “had no working lights”, the complaint states, and was pushed “backwards unsafely onto the poorly lit roadway of Christoval Road”.

Sometime thereafter, Di Pietro, who was traveling southbound on the road, crashed into the vehicle and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Video surveillance footage from the Party Ranch verified that Schmidt had indeed assisted in pushing the truck into the road. After the crash, the complaint states, Schmidt parked his truck back at the Party Ranch parking lot and returned inside the club, failing to identify himself as being involved in the accident.

Schmidt was arrested on May 10, 2013 for criminally negligent homicide and was held overnight in lieu of a $25k surety bond.

A Grand Jury indicted Schmidt on three charges pertaining to the accident in January 2013, including intoxication manslaughter with vehicle, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The manslaughter charges are both second-degree felonies; the criminally negligent homicide charge is a state jail felony.

On Jan. 1, 2014, Assistant District Attorney Richard Villareal filed a notice of intent to seek a deadly weapon finding with the court.