By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
EL RENO – A Hinton woman will be formally sentenced in December after pleading no contest to second-degree murder in a crash this spring that killed a Yukon man.
Melissa May Seuffert, 34, entered the plea at an Oct. 21 hearing before Special Judge Charles Gass in Canadian County District.
Judge Gass found Seuffert guilty of the felony charge with prior felony convictions. Sentencing will be 1:30 p.m. Dec. 17 and the judge ordered a pre-sentence investigation report by Dec. 1.
The defendant, represented by attorney Michael Rogalin, was remanded back to the state Department of Corrections’ custody until the sentencing date.
Seuffert was charged after causing a May 11 traffic collision on Interstate 40 near El Reno, court records show.
Yukon’s Matthew Rousey, 35, was pronounced dead at the scene after the 2018 Ford F-350 he was driving was struck by a 2010 Nissan Altima driven by Seuffert, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Rousey and Seuffert were both westbound on I-40 when the crash occurred.
Seuffert’s car “was traveling at a high rate of speed and struck” Rousey’s pickup in the rear, according to an OHP report.
The impact caused the truck to leave the roadway to the right and roll multiple times, the report indicates. Rousey was ejected from his vehicle.
Seuffert’s car left the roadway to the left and struck a cable barrier before both vehicles came to rest in the grass, the OHP reported.
The defendant has been in state prison since Oct. 8 for violating her probation after receiving a seven-year deferred sentence in a 2018 felony driving under the influence case.
Judge Gass on Sept. 4 sentenced Seuffert to five years in prison after accepting prosecutors’ request to accelerate her deferred sentence. She is being housed at the Mabel Bassett Center in McLoud.
Seuffert has other convictions in Canadian County for public intoxication and outraging public decency.
