Crime scene tape is seen forming part of a large perimeter around a crime scene where Fremont police fatally shot a man they say pulled a gun on officers on Thursday, April 5, 2018. (Joseph Geha/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CRUZ — A Texas man charged with involuntarily causing his friend’s death after a late-night downtown street argument last month pleaded not guilty to charges Wednesday morning.
The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office charged Nicholay Goushevskiy, 37, with involuntary manslaughter after his arrest. The complaint describes Goushevskiy as allegedly killing friend Dallas Ryan Ferguson, 37, during the commission of an unlawful act, during a lawful act which may have produced death and without due caution and circumspection. The charge carries as much as a four-year sentence.
According to Santa Cruz police, the defendant, whose last name the department and Santa Cruz County Jail records spell as “Groushevskiy,” had been drinking with Ferguson and the two were in a fight before Ferguson died. Police responded to a fight downed man around 11 p.m. Nov. 17 on the 600 block of Front Street. There, they found Ferguson unconscious. He was declared dead after being transported to the hospital.
During his arraignment Wednesday before Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Stephen Siegel, Goushevskiy was assigned a public defense attorney and ordered to undergo a substance use assessment. He remained held without bail in the Santa Cruz County Jail. He is scheduled to return to court Jan. 5 for receipt of the assessment and to address his bail status, according to court records.
Originally published at Jessica York