Dodge City Man Charged In Ft. Hays Professors Death

A Dodge City man is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter after a traffic accident that killed a longtime Ft. Hays State University professor and his mother-in-law.

Nineteen-year-old Braulio De La Cruz-Gonzalez is charged in deaths of 67-year-old Fred Ruda and 90-year-old Eleanor T. Sexson of Hays. They were killed in April 2012 in an accident seven miles west of Dodge City. The Kansas Highway Patrol says Cruz-Gonzalez’s vehicle crossed the center line of U.S. 56 and hit Ruda’s car.

Ruda’s wife, 63-year-old Sherill Ruda, suffered disabling injuries. Cruz-Gonzalez also was hospitalized after the accident.

The Rudas and Sexson were en route to Montezuma to spend Easter Sunday with relatives.

De La Cruz-Gonzalez is scheduled to appear in court Monday.