Man won't be charged in toddler's death

Aug. 5, 2005

KATE KELLY\Frontiersman reporter

A Palmer grand jury's decision last week not to indict a Big Lake man who allegedly ran over and killed an 18-month-old boy in his neighbor's driveway one year ago has confirmed the toddler's mother's belief that the justice system is broken.

"The system failed us," a tearful Kim Woodbury said Monday as she held her 3-month-old daughter in the Big Lake home she considered "paradise" until Troy R. Huls, 39, allegedly backed his three-quarter-ton Dodge pickup over her son, George Woodbury IV, on the afternoon of July 25, 2004 when she left the toddler momentarily unattended.

But there's still the wrongful-death complaint Kim and George Woodbury III filed against Huls in Palmer Superior Court on Aug. 25, 2004, claiming Huls was impaired by drugs and sleep deprivation when he suddenly left their home as they were writing him a $3,000 check for excavation work he had done for them and ran over their son in the driveway.

Alaska State Troopers never forwarded charges against Huls, so the Woodburys asked prosecutors to take the case to the grand jury and filed the civil complaint in hopes that Huls would be found responsible for their son's death.

The suit is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 5 in Judge Beverly Cutler's courtroom.

According to District Attorney Roman Kalytiak, Kim Woodbury was outside with her son "Georgie" when she received a call on her cell phone and went inside to give the phone to her husband. Huls' truck was gone when she returned.

"I came out of the house 15 seconds later and my baby's lying in my driveway," Woodbury said Monday. "He was crushed from head to foot by both tires. Every inch of my son was run over."

Kalytiak said that although there was a question of drug use by Huls the night before the accident, the grand jury did not find enough evidence of criminal negligence or recklessness to indict him.

The Woodburys' civil complaint stated, "Troy R. Huls, while at the property, spoke to their son Georgie while Georgie was outside and prior to Troy Huls running over him in his vehicle," and that Huls then left the scene before the Woodburys discovered their son and "tried to keep Georgie alive while they tried to obtain medical help but their son did not survive."

The complaint accused Huls of "failing to act as a reasonable and prudent person; negligently and recklessly failing to look prior to proceeding in his vehicle; leaving the scene of an accident; assault in the fourth degree; and driving while impaired and/or under the influence of alcohol and/or other legal and illegal drugs which reduced his ability to safely drive a vehicle," among other things.

A claim is also made against Huls and "vicariously for the actions and inactions of his agents" for the "negligent and intentional spoilation of evidence to the extent he fails to preserve all evidence regarding the death of Georgie and in particular his blood samples for independent testing …" In other words, investigators might not have handled with care blood and urine samples collected from Huls after the accident.

In Huls' answer to the complaints, filed April 21, he denied any knowledge of causing the death of the Woodburys' son and also denies that he acted with negligence while on the Woodburys' property the day of the accident.

Huls, who lived next door to the Woodburys at Big Lake for four years, only has a speeding ticket on his record, according to court records.

Kim Woodbury said she is determined to change the system - somehow.

"I want to change this for a future family that this will happen to," she said.

Contact Kate Kelly at

352-2284.