Driver jailed in crash that killed JeffCo EMS chief
A 36-year-old Prineville man turned himself in to Oregon State Police Wednesday after learning he faced an arrest warrant on criminal negligent homicide and felony hit-and-run charges in an Aug. 8 crash on Highway 97 south of Madras that fatally injured Jefferson County EMS manager Don Heckathorn.
Gerald Scott Green was arrested by OSP at the agency’s Madras office and lodged in the Jefferson County Jail on the criminal negligent homicide charge and a felony charge of failure to perform the duties of a driver in an accident involving injury or death. His initial bail was set at $30,000.
Around 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8, troopers say a 1996 Cadillac four-door driven by Green was heading east on SW Dover Lane when he failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with a northbound 2012 Harley Davidson motorcycle operated by Heckathorn, 64, of Madras.
Heckathorn died of his injuries six days later at St. Charles-Bend. Green was unhurt in the collision.
State court records indicate Green was cited eight times between 1995 and 2010 for driving with a suspended license. During that same 15-year period, he was convicted of speed racing, driving uninsured and speeding in urban areas.
His license was revoked several times and last reinstated in 2006, according to the Oregon Judicial Information Network.
