(File photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) State police troopers view the scene of the October 2021 crash that claimed the life of Staff Sgt. Jesse Sherrill as he sat in the cruiser, shown covered at right, on I-95 in Portsmouth. The driver of the tractor trailer that struck the cruiser has been indicted on charges related to the crash.

BRENTWOOD — The Connecticut man who was at the wheel of a tractor-trailer that slammed into a state police cruiser on I-95 in October and killed the trooper inside has been indicted on two charges stemming from the crash.

The grand jury for the May term of Rockingham County Superior Court handed up the two indictments against Jay Paul Medeiros, a resident of Ashford, Connecticut, following a several-month investigation into the incident.

The impact destroyed the cruiser and fatally injured Staff Sgt. Jesse Sherrill, a nearly 20-year state police veteran who was serving as the assistant commander of Troop A at the time of his death.

Medeiros was indicted on one count each of negligent homicide and reckless conduct.

According to the indictments, Medeiros is accused of “negligently causing the death” of Sherrill by “driving a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95,” allegedly with “THC in his blood,” and “despite passing at least two advanced warning signs and observing multiple warning/emergency lights, including a yellow direction arrow board, failed to move over to the next lane and/or reduce his speed until the tractor-trailer was within 11 feet of the parked cruiser … therefore slamming into the cruiser at a high rate of speed,” and causing Sherrill’s death.

The crash occurred on the northbound side of I-95 near mile Marker 14, just before Exit 3, at about 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 28.

First responders upon arrival found the heavily damaged cruiser and the tractor-trailer unit, which was partially into the woods off the right side of the highway.

Sherrill, who was found unresponsive, was rushed to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later.

Medeiros sustained minor injuries, for which he was treated at the hospital and later released.

–JEFFREY HASTINGS

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