Man who fled manslaughter-DUII conviction caught in Bend

A Clackamas County man who failed to show up Monday for his manslaughter and DUII conviction in a May 2012 crash was apprehended in Bend Tuesday night when officers responded to a call of a suspicious man, possibly on drugs, trying to break into a car in the Sportsman’s Warehouse parking lot, police said.

Although he was not in the courtroom, Gary Monaco, 54, was found guilty Monday of first-degree manslaughter and DUII in the May 2012 crash that killed Laura Schaefer, 76. He attended last week’s trial but did not show up for Monday’s ruling, prompting the issuing of an arrest warrant.

Shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday, Bend officers were dispatched to the call on Hunnell Road, where Monaco reportedly asked police to remove a large amount of cash he had in his car, Clackamas County officials said.

They said Monaco was too heavily impaired, allegedly from consuming drugs, to be taken immediately to jail, so he was taken to St. Charles Bend for a time, then to the jail. He’s being held without bail and is expected to be brought back to Clackamas County after the holiday weekend.

Bend police Lt. Nick Parker told The Oregonian Monaco didn’t resist apprehension and he did not know how Monaco ended up in Bend.

During Monday’s hearing, Clackamas County Circuit Judge Douglas Van Dyk said Monaco was impaired by a mix of alcohol, methadone and too little sleep when he drive his pickup truck into a blind curve in the wrong lane and hit Schaefer’s car.

Prosecutors said Monaco had three prior drunk-driving convictions and went through court-ordered treatment three times.

Monaco claimed he was not impaired by drugs or alcohol, blaming the problem on what his attorney, Zack Lorts, called a “death wobble,” a shimmying problem noted on certain Ford pickup models, believed to result from under-inflated tires.