WyoFile now provides Al-generated audio versions of all articles.Feel free to send feedback to casey@wyofile.com
Editor's note: Green River Star reported this story with editing support from WyoFile.
ROCK SPRINGS—When officers arrested the man suspected of stabbing a Sikh truck driver inside a southwest Wyoming rest stop in September, he wanted to know why, according to Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Det. Stephanie Cassidy. They told Andrew Bzdak he faced an aggravated assault charge.
That provoked another question, Cassidy testified Nov. 4 at Bzdak’s preliminary hearing on what’s now an attempted murder charge. Bzdak, she told the court, “answered something along the lines of ‘So he didn’t die?’”
Cassidy described the circumstances of Bzdak’s arrest, as well as the stabbing that spurred it, at a Sweetwater County Circuit Court hearing. At the conclusion, Magistrate Ed Newell ruled enough evidence exists for Bzdak, himself a trucker from California, to face trial for attempted first-degree murder.
The stabbing drew national headlines, in part because the driver who was attacked is a Sikh. While authorities have not offered a motive, the stabbing took place amid a national rise in vitriol directed at immigrant truck drivers and four days after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted an image on social media that showed the Transformers’ leader Optimus Prime facing off against a Sikh man with the tagline that said, in part, “get off our roads.”
During the hearing, Cassidy explained she was the on-call detective and received a call around 4 a.m. on Sept. 13, advising that someone had been stabbed at the Bitter Creek Rest Area at 144 eastbound on Interstate 80 in Sweetwater County.
The victim himself, a truck driver from Sacramento, California, named Gurvinder Singh, reported the stabbing, as did a family who had been at the rest stop during the incident. Singh had been lifeflighted to the hospital before Cassidy arrived on the scene, but she spoke to him the next day. He reported that he had stopped at the rest stop and gone into the bathroom and was at the sink when a man punched him in the head. Cassidy reported that Singh said he turned and the man punched him in the face, there was pushing between the two men, the attacker patted down the front of Singh’s pants, and when Singh tried to leave the man began “punching him with the knife.”
When defense attorney Steven Anselmi-Stith later questioned Cassidy about this statement, she explained that was the way Singh structured his words. She added that there wasn’t exactly a language barrier, since she could understand Singh, but that was the phrasing Singh used.
Cassidy confirmed that records showed Singh had been stabbed 15 times, which included cuts above his left eye and on his cheek, a puncture to his neck area, and several punctures on his arms, chest and flank. Cassidy also said his left wrist was degloved and his right hand and face were “super swollen” when she spoke to him. Cassidy explained that most of Singh’s wounds had been treated and were covered when she spoke to him in the hospital, but that EMS had taken photos of the wounds after the incident, which she had seen and which looked like punctures rather than cuts to her. The hospital had also indicated that the wounds were punctures, according to Cassidy.
Singh told Cassidy that he left and the suspect ran. A family, which Cassidy identified as the Anchado family, was at the rest stop during the incident. The adult son, who was in the car at the time, gave a witness statement and translated for his parents, who don’t speak English. The family reported that the mother had been in the women’s restroom and heard grunting, so she left and saw Singh, who was bleeding. Seeing the suspect’s truck leaving, the family got in their car and followed the truck for long enough to get a description and the license plate number, after which they returned to the rest stop, where they provided the information to dispatch, Cassidy explained.
Information on the truck was shared with Wyoming Highway Patrol, and Highway Patrol officers were able to pull the truck over at the Flying J in Rawlins, where they detained the driver, who was identified as Bzdak. Cassidy identified Bzdak in the courtroom as the defendant in the case and the suspect from the incident.
A search warrant was obtained for Bzdak’s truck, and Cassidy said that detectives searched the vehicle and found a plastic Walmart bag with jeans and wet wipes that both appeared to have blood on them, as well as a pair of shoes with apparent blood on them.
Authorities obtained video footage of the incident from both the dash cam of Bzdak’s truck and another semi parked at the rest stop. Cassidy said the videos show when Bzdak’s truck parks at the rest stop before midnight and when Singh shows up close to 3 a.m. As Singh begins walking toward the rest stop, Bzdak gets out of his truck and follows him from a different sidewalk, Cassidy explained. The video then shows Bzdak running back to his vehicle and leaving on the interstate.
While Bzdak’s dash cam footage from his truck faces outwards, it shows reflections of the inside of the cab from the windshield, Cassidy explained. This footage shows Bzdak using his phone, and after Singh gets out shows the reflection of Bzdak appearing to grab something, holding his hands in his lap in a fist, and appearing to manipulate his sweater before he gets out, Cassidy said. After Bzdak returned to his truck and began driving, the footage shows two instances where he quickly turns the dome light in his vehicle on and holds out his hands, as if to examine them to see if they are hurt or have something on them, according to Cassidy.
The sheriff’s office also obtained GPS records from Bzdak’s trucking company, JKC Trucking, for Bzdak’s truck, and a search warrant for Bzdak’s phone and its GPS data. Cassidy said the GPS records from both the truck and phone line up with the timeline of events described by witnesses and observed in the dash cam footage.
When questioned by Anselmi-Stith, Cassidy said that Singh had told her he had no idea who Bzdak was, and he had asked her why he was attacked. When Anselmi-Stith asked about what Singh was wearing at the time, Cassidy said he had a dark Nike T-shirt, pants and tennis shoes, and that he walked with his hands in his pockets.
In closing statements, County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe said he believed the state had met the burden for probable cause on the case and that Bzdak had purposefully attacked Singh. Erramouspe added that questions of intent and malice are for a jury to decide, but he believes intent to kill can be inferred from repeated stab wounds in vital areas, and that malice can be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon.
Anselmi-Stith countered that he didn’t believe the state had met the burden, pointing to the facts that there was no witness to the actual event, the victim hadn’t identified the suspect, and there was no testimony of a knife being found or used. Erramouspe responded that there are very few cases of murder or attempted murder with direct witnesses. He pointed to the dashcam footage and GPS data lining up with the timeline of events as described. Erramouspe also added that whether a murder is premeditated is also a question for a jury, but pointed out that premeditation doesn’t have to be for more than a second, and that Bzdak was sitting in his truck before seeing Singh and following him inside, then fleeing.
“He went in there and started stabbing,” Erramouspe said.
Magistrate Newell said that the court had determined enough evidence exists to advance the case to district court.
Bzdak remains detained at the Sweetwater County Detention Center under a $1 million bond.
