BOISE, Idaho — The Eagle man charged with vehicular manslaughter in the crash that killed a woman in November 2017 has been found guilty in a second trial on that charge.
An Ada County jury returned the guilty verdict against Adam Paulson, 47, after about two hours of deliberation on Tuesday, following a five-day trial. Paulson was found to be driving under the influence of alcohol when he struck and killed Madeline Duskey just after midnight Nov. 18, 2017, while Duskey was walking across Eagle Road at Riverside Drive. A blood test showed Paulson's blood alcohol concentration was 0.213, more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit.
The trial that ended Jan. 31 was the second for Paulson, who was found guilty in 2018, then sentenced to probation. Paulson challenged the conviction, and in 2022 was granted a new trial when the Idaho Supreme Court determined the jury in Paulson's first trial had been given improper instructions.
Paulson is scheduled to be sentenced on March 17 at 10:30 a.m., by Fourth District Judge Derrick O'Neill. The maximum penalty for vehicular manslaughter under Idaho law is 15 years in prison and/or a $15,000 fine.
After his first trial more than four years ago, Judge Deborah Bail gave Paulson a 15-year suspended sentence and put him on probation and ordered him to perform community service. Shortly after beginning probation, Paulson was arrested in March 2019 for violating that probation; he was found to have tampered with his alcohol-monitoring anklet multiple times.
Duskey, a mother of two, was 24 years old when she was killed. A week after Paulson was sentenced the first time, her father called that sentence a "slap in the face." Paulson was already on probation for domestic violence at the time of the crash.
“With the person already being on probation when this happened, he already slipped through the cracks once and ended up our daughter," Ben Duskey said during an interview with KTVB in January 2019. "We had a celebration of life for her because he did slip through the cracks. Who has to be next?"
Duskey's parents have become advocates against drinking and driving.
"Thank you to Ms. Duskey's family and friends who showed great patience and strength while trusting the system throughout the trial for a second time," Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts said in a news release sent out Wednesday. "Thank you to the jurors for your time and attention during this trial. And finally, thank you to the Ada County Sheriff's Office and the Boise Police Department for their investigations on this case."
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