Fugitive agrees to return to Flathead
By CHERY SABOL
Ambrozuk changes his mind about fighting extradition
The Daily Inter Lake
One of the Flathead Valley's longest-standing fugitives, Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk, has agreed to return to Montana to face a 24-year-old murder charge.
Ambrozuk, 43, changed his mind about fighting extradition.
On Tuesday, he told a judge in Collin County, Texas, that he will return to Flathead County without the bureaucratic gymnastics that are necessary if he resists.
Since 1982, Ambrozuk has been wanted on a warrant for negligent homicide.
In August 1982, when he was 19, he crashed a rented plane into Bitterroot Lake west of Kalispell, drowning Dianne Babcock, his 18-year-old girlfriend. Both Ambrozuk and Babcock were from Canada.
Ambrozuk freed himself from the plane and went on the run. He was arrested in Texas last month after a tip to Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont.
Jailed first in Plano, Texas, and then transferred to the Collin County facility, Ambrozuk has refused visitors and told a judge last week he planned to fight coming back to Montana.
A hearing Tuesday morning reversed that.
Dwight McKay, U.S. marshal for the Montana district, said his office may fly Ambrozuk to Montana on one of its Boeing 737 jets. The Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System is "a sort of air force" that flies mainly federal prisoners "all over the place," McKay said.
He said the department is looking into whether it can make arrangements on one of its flights for Ambrozuk.
"It depends on when the next airlift is," McKay said. There usually is one flight a month that serves Montana.
If Flathead County contracts with the U.S. Marshal's Office, Ambrozuk will be flown to some point in Montana and then driven by sheriff's officers to Kalispell, McKay said.
"We can't tell you where we'd land," he said. "That's always classified."
Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont said that if everything goes perfectly, Ambrozuk could be here by the end of the week.
Once here, Ambrozuk faces up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted on the negligent homicide charge.
After the 1982 crash, he called a friend to say that he had planned to put the plane down on the lake and then vanish into a new life. Ambrozuk talked about living in the woods. He told his friend that Babcock had tagged along "because I guess she was in love with me or something like that."
The call was recorded by Canadian officials and will be the key evidence against Ambrozuk if the case goes to trial.
In the conversation, Ambrozuk said Babcock was unable to release her seat belt as the plane sank. The plane later was recovered in more than 240 feet of water with Babcock's body inside.
Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan said Ambrozuk's actions of landing a plane in a lake were so reckless they constitute negligent homicide.
He said last week he plans to aggressively prosecute Ambrozuk.
Court documents filed Monday assign the case to District Judge Stewart Stadler.
Today, a crew from the television network show "America's Most Wanted" is expected to arrive. The show twice featured Ambrozuk's story in the past. Dupont said it was the program's oldest unsolved case.
Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com