Oregon millionaire overdoses on fentanyl while awaiting trial for killing female paraglider, 36, after crashing his Tesla into her Mazda head-on ‘while drunk’
- Gabriel Owens, 44, died on October 11 due to a lethal dose of fentanyl, an attorney representing late paraglider Kyle Haston[1], 36, has revealed
- She died in a Sept.
8 crash involving Owens, where he was hit with manslaughter and missed his fist check-in with cops before being allowed to stay out of jail
- It's now been revealed that within weeks, Owens, after being allowed to avoid incarceration, overdosed on the same pills he was suspected of popping
By Alex Hammer For Dailymail.Com[2]
Published: 00:16, 17 December 2023 | Updated: 00:28, 17 December 2023
A man who made millions suing an Oregon[3] resort after a mountain bike accident died of an overdose while awaiting a different DUII case against him.
Rendered a paraplegic, Gabriel Owens was subsequently awarded more than £10million during the 2016 civil trial, and died on October 11 due to a lethal dose of fentanyl, an attorney representing late paraglider Kyle Haston has now revealed. [4]
Haston, 36, died on September 8 in a crash involving Owens, 44, on the Southeast Jennifer Street railroad overpass, where Owens' 2022 Tesla[5] sedan collided head on with Haston's 2005 pickup.
Owens, meanwhile, walked away relatively unscathed, but was quickly accused of being high and drunk behind the wheel. He posted £250,000 in bail.
Accused of manslaughter, Owens entered pretrial proceedings on the streets, before missing his first check-in with prosecutors, who then sought to return him to jail.
It's now been revealed that within weeks, Owens, after being allowed to avoid incarceration, overdosed on the same pills he was suspected of popping.
Gabriel Owens, 44, died on October 11 due to a lethal dose of fentanyl, an attorney representing late paraglider Kyle Haston has revealed
Haston, 36, died on September 8 in a crash involving Owens, 45, on the Southeast Jennifer Street railroad overpass
Owens' 2022 Tesla sedan - seen here - collided head on with the Aloha resident's 2005 pickup, killing her and severely injuring her dog
'It's a tragic story for both families,' said Kyle Haston, the brother of the victim of Owens' latest - and last - automotive accident, after court filings in Clackamas County revealed the case against Owens has effectively ended.
'I'm glad he's removed himself from the streets of Clackamas County, for everyone's safety,' the relative continued, offering the remarks to OregonLive[6].
'But it came at such a high cost.'
The comments refer to to the array of reports the publication had published in the past few weeks, revealing how former mountain biker had racked up a series of traffic violations over the years.
The offenses include three DUIIs and are topped off by a 2019 incident where Owens was sentenced to 10 days in jail for spitting on a Clackamas County Sheriff's deputy.
Records further show how out of those three DUII offenses, earned in 2001, 2006 and 2014, Owens only did a total of 10 days in jail - all after his third offense.
The first case and second cases, meanwhile, were diverted to treatment programs - as a police report obtained by the Oregon newspaper also revealed how Owens, in September, told officers he was buying hundreds of £1 fentanyl pills from dealers in downtown Portland in the weeks leading up to the crash.
'It's dangerous as hell, every time I take one it scares me,' the deceased - who had been operating his Tesla with a medical device designed for people with paraplegia - told officers, according to the report.
The admission was also riddled with expletives, officers wrote - before revealing how when Owens was loaded into an ambulance, he called out to a barely alive Haston: 'I'll see you in hell!'
'It's a tragic story for both families,' said Kyle Haston, the brother of the victim of Owens' latest - and last - automotive accident, seen here paragliding in an undated photo
'I'm glad he's removed himself from the streets of Clackamas County, for everyone's safety,' the relative continued as reports revealed the extent of Owen's DUII history. 'But it came at such a high cost'
Haston's rescue dog Risby (seen here) was propelled from the vehicle, sustaining 'serious' injuries but surviving
Owens' sister and Owens' former criminal defense attorney reportedly did not respond to the Oregonian's requests for comments this past Thursday, after becoming the first to report that Owens had died.
Moreover, the paper revealed that Owens died out of custody, after posting bail on September 14.
Previous reports had already indicated how Owens - after receiving his Mt. Hood Skibowl lawsuit money in 2022 - was likely going back behind bars around September 18, after never showing up for a GPS tracker and sobriety monitor.
However, court papers aired by the Oregonian Thursday revealed attorneys for Owens successfully swayed a judge by claiming their client had been hospitalized for an infection, and had hired a sober monitor to ensure he followed pretrial rules.
The jurist obliged and added more release conditions that allowed him to stay out of custody, culminating in his death about three weeks later, as confirmed this week in court filings filed by Haston's attorney Jon Friedman.
On Thursday, he said he believes at least half of Owens' lawsuit money - a £10.5 million settlement secured by arguing the sign he hit at the ski resort should have been collapsible - remains.
'It appears the bulk of his money is in a brokerage account,' the lawyer told OregonLive, after the unearthed report revealed that Owens told cops that he consumed several alcoholic 'buzzballs' - a mix of fentanyl and booze - the night before of the crash.
He had been awarded his riches in a civil trial after he suffered injured in a mountain biking crash on Mount Hood.
Owens' spine was broken below the navel while riding a double-black-diamond trail in 2016
Kyle Haston, the brother of Kira Haston (pictured), is now considering suing the estate of Owens, as Owens had no children and no will
The paraplegic told cops he hadn't had any fentanyl that day, according to the report, but officer wrote he was stumbling over his words and showed what they called 'obvious' signs of impairment.
Clackamas County Sheriff's deputies initially responded to the scene about 1 p.m., finding Owens' 2022 Tesla sedan totaled, along with Aloha resident Haston's 2005 Mazda pickup.
Haston's rescue god, a Labrador named Ridby, was ejected from the vehicle, and sustained 'serious injuries' though barely survived.
A blood sample from Owen afterwards turned up positive for fentanyl and benzodiazepines, a powerful depressant, as well as trace amounts of alcohol, leading to his arrest.
He posted a quarter-million bail days later, after his mother rushed to his aid at the crash site.
His death now leads to a battle over his estate, as Owens had no children and no will.
OregonTesla[7][8]References
- ^ late paraglider Kyle Haston (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Alex Hammer For Dailymail.Com (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Oregon (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ an attorney representing late paraglider Kyle Haston has now revealed. (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Tesla (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ OregonLive (www.oregonlive.com)
- ^ Oregon (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Tesla (www.dailymail.co.uk)