Area man pleads guilty in fatal Wood County motorcycle crash

7/24/2008

BOWLING GREEN A Grand Rapids, Ohio, man has pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide in connection with a fatal motorcycle crash in 2006.

Jeffrey Gensler, 45, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 9 by Wood County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Pollex.

Gensler had been scheduled to go on trial yesterday but entered into the plea agreement Tuesday.

Under the agreement, the charge was reduced from a second-degree felony to a third-degree felony that states he was reckless in causing the death of Marguerite Slattery, 50, of Perrysburg, his girlfriend, who was a passenger on his motorcycle.

Gensler was westbound on Dowling Road July 28, 2006, when he failed to yield for a stop sign at Tracy Road and lost control of his motorcycle, which rolled over, authorities said.