Trial date set for suspect in fatal Highway 12 crash

A Rohnert Park man will face trial next month on two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter in a case of apparent distracted driving that killed two women in March on Highway 12.

Driver Nicholas Tognozzi, 30, slammed his truck into the back of a stopped car near Farmers Lane, killing rear passengers Sue Hufford, 53, and her mother-in-law, Sharon Hufford, 74.

Tognozzi faces gross negligence allegations and is suspected of looking at his phone moments before the crash and driving too fast for the conditions. He also is charged with enhancements for causing great bodily injury to driver Jay Hufford, Sue Hufford’s husband, and his father, passenger Donald Hufford, Sharon Hufford’s husband.

He faces more than 12 years in prison if convicted. Tognozzi is in jail with bail set at $280,000.

After a preliminary hearing at which Judge Rene Chouteau said Tognozzi was not impaired by alcohol or marijuana when he barreled his GMC pickup into the Huffords’ Toyota Camry, the judge encouraged the sides to work toward a settlement.

No agreement has been reached, so an Aug. 29 trial date was set a hearing Thursday morning.

Prosecutor Dustin Hughson has argued that some level of intoxication was a factor in Tognozzi’s actions.

Tognozzi, who was uninjured, said he drank one beer about an hour before the crash and said he smoked marijuana the previous evening.

The CHP also said Tognozzi told an officer he was expecting a text message as he drove to a friend’s house in Rincon Valley and looked at his phone on the center console just before the impact.

Tognozzi was arrested ?after officers found several ?buds of marijuana in a glass jar and a pipe in his truck. Three hours later, a drug recognition expert with the CHP determined Tognozzi was under the influence of marijuana but not impaired.

In 2011, he was ticketed for using a cellphone while driving, which prosecutors said should have made him aware of the dangers of distracted driving.

Tognozzi’s lawyers argued he may have been momentarily inattentive, but that his actions were not criminal.

The trial date will be confirmed at a hearing on Aug. 15. Trial could last a week or two.

You can reach Staff Writer ?Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat?.com.