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Ogden man pleads guilty in DUI crash that killed jogger

By Mark Shenefelt - | Jan 18, 2023

Photo supplied, Tooele County Sheriff's Office

Max J. Pagano

TOOELE — An Ogden man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a pair of charges in the DUI crash death of a jogger.

Max J. Pagano, 48, was arrested after his vehicle struck Grant Goodwin, 40, of Stansbury Park, on Aug. 20, 2020.

Pagano originally was charged with second-degree felony automobile homicide, but in a 3rd District Court appearance on Tuesday, he agreed to a plea bargain, pleading guilty to third-degree felony DUI and Class A misdemeanor negligent homicide.

A probable cause statement filed by the Utah Highway Patrol said a trooper responded to a reported auto-pedestrian crash on state Route 36 at 6:20 a.m. The trooper said he found Goodwin in weeds on the road’s right shoulder. The jogger was dead, the report said.

Pagano had stopped nearby and told the trooper he initially thought he had hit a deer, until he reached Goodwin and saw it was a person, according to the arrest affidavit.

Pagano told the trooper he braked and swerved left before the impact. In the arrest affidavit, the trooper said he saw no evidence of heavy braking or signs of impact on the highway, but there was debris on the road shoulder.

The trooper said once Pagano was in his patrol car, he smelled a strong odor of alcohol on the man. Asked about it, Pagano said he had been drinking the night before and got up early to go to work.

Pagano agreed to a breath test at the Tooele UHP office and the result showed an alcohol content of 0.12%, the affidavit said. The blood alcohol limit in Utah is 0.05%.

Pagano is scheduled to be sentenced April 12.

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