A Minnesota woman who pulled out in front of a 24-year-old motorcyclist and caused his death in Cody last summer has been acquitted of vehicular homicide.

Following a bench trial last month, a judge found that Shobhana R. Rao “clearly” appeared to have driven negligently and caused Dominic Gibson’s death last August. However, Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah said prosecutors had failed to show Rao’s actions amounted to vehicular homicide.

To prove the crime, prosecutors had to prove she was criminally negligent and grossly deviated from the standard of care a reasonable person would exercise in the same situation. Darrah said that’s not what the evidence showed from the Aug. 2 crash that took Gibson’s life.

He noted that Rao hadn’t been speeding, wasn’t driving aggressively, wasn’t impaired and had come to a complete stop before proceeding into the intersection of U.S. Highway 14/16/20 and Wyo. Highway 120. With no aggravating conduct, Darrah said the crash did not warrant a conviction for vehicular homicide.

“Defendant simply failed to see an oncoming motorcycle as she made a left turn, resulting in tragic consequences,” the judge wrote.

Gibson left behind a long-time fiancee and son, along with many other family members and friends. Roughly 20 of them attended Thursday’s hearing in Cody, where Darrah spent an hour reading through his 32-page judgment and order. Many of those in the courtroom wore shirts featuring a tribute to Gibson — and a few reacted angrily when Darrah reached the end of his ruling and announced he was finding Rao not guilty.

In his order, Darrah said he knew the collision was “disastrous” and could lead to “fully understandable outrage” for those grieving Gibson’s death.

However, “the court, as the trier of fact, cannot allow the horrific outcome of the accident to create a results-oriented decision,” Darrah wrote, nor could he “be guided by emotion, passion or sympathy.”

“The court has an obligation to strictly apply the law to the facts presented,” he added.

Rao — who attended Thursday’s hearing by video — opted for a bench trial before Darrah instead of a jury trial in front of a six-member panel of local residents. The case was tried May 10.

According to the information presented at trial, Rao had been traveling north on Wyo. Highway 120 around noon. When she reached its intersection with U.S. Highway 14/16/20, near Yellowstone Regional Airport, Rao came to a stop, then made a left-hand turn toward Cody.

By her own account, Rao failed to see Gibson approaching from the west (her left) at roughly 50-55 miles per hour in the 55 mph zone. Both Rao and Gibson made efforts to try to avoid the collision, but it was too late: Gibson and his scooter-like, red-and-black Honda Aero 125 motor scooter crashed into the side of Rao’s van. Gibson was thrown over the vehicle and onto the pavement, suffering severe injuries to his head and body that ultimately proved fatal.

Trooper Ryan Logan of the Wyoming Highway Patrol testified that drivers can get focused on larger objects and fail to see motorcyclists, describing it as a common problem.

“In that regard,” Darrah wrote, “Trooper Logan agreed that even if a driver thought they were doing everything right, they could still miss seeing smaller objects on the road.”

In his order, Darrah analyzed the law and prior cases from Wyoming, Kansas, Arkansas, New York, Texas and New Hampshire. He also noted the charge hinged on Rao’s actions, not the harm that resulted.

“Obviously, criminal liability cannot be predicated upon every careless act merely because its carelessness results in death or injury to another,” Darrah wrote. “If that were the case, every automobile accident involving death would likewise lead to prosecution for criminally negligent homicide.”

He concluded that Rao’s “mere non-perception of Mr. Gibson, standing on its own, is not enough to establish criminal negligence.”

However, Darrah added that the driver’s conduct “clearly appears to meet the civil negligence standard,” suggesting Gibson’s family could potentially prevail against Rao in a civil lawsuit. In a restitution memo provided to the court ahead of the trial, family members said they had incurred nearly $300,000 worth of medical bills plus thousands of dollars of costs associated with his burial and memorials.

Multiple family members had also submitted statements speaking to how their lives and those of others have been impacted by Gibson’s sudden, traumatic death.

His mother, Kelly Lohstreter, wrote in early May that the entire family “is reeling from losing him.”

“We will never recover from this,” Lohstreter wrote. “He is gone.”