Ex-Party Bus Owner Convicted In Death of Santa Cruz Woman Who Fell From Bus

PHOTOS: Natasha Noland, 25, of Santa Cruz, died on Highway 17 in Los Gatos after falling from a bus.

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The former owner of a Santa Cruz party bus company was convicted of involuntary manslaughter this week when a jury found him negligent for failing to fix a bus’ broken back door before a 25-year-old woman fell to her death in 2012, prosecutors announced today.

Jon Reno St. James, 58, of Yucca Valley, faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison when he is sentenced on May 29, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

St. James was found guilty Wednesday for the death of Natasha Noland, who died as she was riding in the bus back to Santa Cruz after a Brad Paisley concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View on July 27, 2012. There were about a dozen passengers in the bus at the time.

• Previous:
• Ex-Party Bus Owner Pleads Not Guilty to Manslaughter Charges in Los Gatos Death
• Natasha Noland Remembered as Great Friend, Talented Artist
• Woman Killed in Party Bus Accident Identified

Noland got into a fight with another woman in the back of the bus as it drove on state Highway 17 near Los Gatos. During the fight, the bus’ back door flew open and both women fell onto the highway, prosecutors said.

Noland was dragged under the bus and killed. The other woman survived her injuries.

The jury found after two days of deliberations that St. James was aware the bus’ back door was broken. The door had popped open during previous trips and required an easy fix, but St. James failed to repair it for months, according to prosecutors.

The company’s mechanic had quit in February and in the months before the accident, St. James had not hired a replacement, prosecutors said.

“What makes this case so sad is that this was an easy fix that could have been done in about half an hour,” prosecutor Matthew Braker said in a statement. “If the defendant had shown the slightest sense of responsibility this tragedy could have been avoided.”

St. James was arrested last May after he was indicted by a grand jury on vehicular and voluntary manslaughter charges.

After his month-long trial, the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. He was remanded into custody to await sentencing after the jury read the verdict, according to prosecutors.

--Bay City News

--Patch file photos

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| CAPITOLA-SOQUEL| SANTA CRUZ| SCOTTS VALLEY| WATSONVILLE|

CAMPBELL | CUPERTINO| GILROY| LOS GATOS| LOS ALTOS| MILPITAS| MOUNTAIN VIEW | PALO ALTO| SARATOGA|