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1 of 2 charged in ATV death seeks separate trial

ALTOONA (AP) — One of two men facing charges in an all-terrain vehicle crash that killed a Pennsylvania high school standout softball player two years ago is seeking a separate trial.

State police say 18-year-old Mikayla Focht died after the ATV she was riding struck several deer in April 2016, and a Jeep then ran over her.

Nineteen-year-old Jeep driver Jacob Helsel is charged with causing an accident involving death. Twenty-year-old ATV driver Trenton Bilak is charged with vehicular homicide.

The (Altoona) Mirror reports that attorney Christopher Jancula argues that Helsel’s trial will be “unfairly prejudiced” as Blair County prosecutors build a homicide case against Bilak.

Court documents filed on Bilak’s behalf indicate that a forensic pathologist says the victim may have been killed by the Jeep rather than by the ATV crash.