Ambrozuk trial set for May 21

Trial will start May 21 for Jerry Ambrozuk, charged with negligent homicide in the 1982 death of Dianne Babcock.

The jury trial is expected to last five days. District Judge Stewart Stadler will preside.

Ambrozuk's sentencing hearing before Stadler on March 7 ended with a surprise plea change, prompting the trial.

In February, Ambrozuk had amended his original plea of not guilty to a plea of no contest, indicating he did not intend to fight the charges without legally admitting guilt.

Attorneys had agreed to recommend 10 years' unsupervised probation, which would have freed him up to face immediate action on federal passport-fraud charges in Texas.

But on March 7 it became clear that if he went free on federal charges and then got deported to Canada as expected, the United States would lose all jurisdiction over any probationary period.

As a result, Ambrozuk would have faced essentially no penalties.

Stadler told County Attorney Ed Corrigan, who is prosecuting the case, and defense attorney Pat Sherlock that he "would have found the 10-year probation inappropriate."

Ambrozuk was offered the chance to change his "no contest" plea.

He pleaded not guilty.

Considering the six months Ambrozuk already has spent in jail since he was found in Texas living under the name of "Michael Smith," Corrigan asked for a trial to be scheduled within 80 days.

Ambrozuk is accused of deliberately flying a small rental airplane, in which Babcock was a passenger, into Little Bitterroot Lake, then leaving her behind to drown as he escaped.

He called a friend to tell him of the crash, but did not report it to authorities before he disappeared for the next 24 years. The plane was found a month after the crash in 244 feet of water.

Ambrozuk maintains the two were teenage lovers looking to run away from their homes in British Columbia and start new lives under new identities in the United States. He said they had mutually planned the escapade, and that he was devastated when he was unable to free her from the plane before he swam away.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com