Driver accused of homicide faces 7 more felony charges

A 24-year-old man facing homicide charges for slamming head-on into a vehicle and killing a couple from Oostburg while driving the wrong way on I-43 near Port Washington early Memorial Day was charged last week with seven additional felonies.

Ace Vue of Milwaukee, who authorities say passed 24 vehicles at speeds that exceeded 100 mph while driving the wrong way on the freeway, was charged in an amended criminal complaint filed June 12 with seven counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety in connection with some of the people he passed on the freeway.

Vue was initially charged on May 30 with two counts of first-degree reckless homicide in connection with the deaths of Jay and Nicole Horne and first-degree reckless injury in connection with the critical injuries suffered by the couple’s 22-year-old daughter Alissa.

During a June 12 court hearing, Vue waived his right to a preliminary hearing  and was bound over for trial by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Also during that hearing, Williams denied a motion from Vue’s lawyer Jonathan LaVoy asking that his bail be reduced from $2 million to $50,000, a change that was opposed by District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay.

LaVoy argued that Vue is not a flight risk and, noting in a brief supporting his motion that he had rods placed in his back due to injuries he suffered in the crash, is not able to get the medical care he needs in jail.

But in setting Vue’s bail at $2 million on June 3, Judge Adam Gerol said the penalty he faces if convicted — a maximum 145 year in prison and on supervision for the three initial charges alone — is incentive to flee. In addition, the judge said, Vue demonstrated by his inexplicable actions that he is a danger to the public.

Lindsay said Vue drove his 2025 Lexus IS sedan back and forth on I-43 in an area between the Sheboygan County line and Port Washington in the correct traffic lanes, at one point crossing through the grass median to go the other direction, until stopping on the freeway, doing a U-turn and driving south in the northbound lanes just after midnight May 26.

Footage from a dash camera in Vue’s vehicle, which also recorded his speed, showed him passing two dozen vehicles, forcing several drivers to take evasive action to avoid collisions, while driving the wrong way, Lindsay said.

For seven minutes Vue was driving at more than 100 mph. He was traveling at 92 mph when he hit the Hornes’ 2017 Ford Escape, according to a criminal complaint.

“Likely he may have been under the influence (of intoxicants),” Lindsay said. The results of those tests are expected in late July or early August.

According to the amended complaint, a woman told authorities that she and her husband, who were on their way home from Indiana, were driving north on I-43 when Vue passed them driving south in the northbound lanes. The woman, who called 911 as Vue continued on toward other drivers, said it seemed like he was traveling at 300 mph and never applied his brakes.

Another woman said she and her wife were driving from Milwaukee to their home in Sheboygan when the driver of the vehicle in front of them suddenly swerved and turned on the car’s hazard lights. That is when the woman said she saw Vue’s car headed towards her “really fast.” She was able to slow down and pull onto the shoulder to avoid Vue, the complaint states.

A third woman told authorities that the Horne’s Ford Escape was initially behind the vehicle she and a man were in but then switched lanes and was passing their vehicle when Vue collided with the Escape. The crash happened so close to their vehicle that she thought they would also be hit, according to the complaint.

The man she was with, a volunteer firefighter, provided assistance at the scene.

Authorities were alerted to Vue driving the wrong way by several 911 calls shortly before the crash and at 12:37 a.m. May 26 an Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to an area of I-43 near Belgium for multiple reports of a red sedan driving south in the northbound lanes while swerving and speeding. The Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Office received several similar 911 calls.

Moments later, Port Washington police officers who were watching for the car from the Highway H overpass near the north side of Port saw it collide head-on with another vehicle.

Officers arrived at the scene to find a Ford Escape that had suffered “devastating damage.” Mr. Horne, who was a front seat passenger in the vehicle, was found in the median deceased. Mrs. Horne, who was driving, was pinned in the vehicle. Emergency responders initially detected a pulse, but she quickly died, the complaint states.

Alissa Horne, who was in the back seat, was pinned in the vehicle and conscious. After being extricated from the vehicle, she was taken by ambulance to Froedtert Hospital. She suffered two broken femurs and a broken ankle.

The volunteer firefighter who stopped at the scene of the crash to help said Mrs. Horne swerved but could not avoid Vue’s car, which struck the front and passenger side of her Escape, according to the complaint.

Officers investigating the crash discovered Vue’s vehicle had a front and rear-facing dash camera. A search warrant was obtained for footage from the camera, which showed Vue driving south on I-43 from Sheboygan County in the correct lanes, then exiting the freeway on the north side of Port Washington.

He crossed the I-43 overpass on Highway H and got back on the freeway, driving north in the correct lanes until he was north of Belgium, where he drove through the grass median of the freeway and headed south in the southbound lanes.

He exited the freeway at Belgium, then re-entered it and drove north in the northbound lanes until he was just south of Cedar Grove, where he did a U-turn and began driving south in the northbound lanes, the complaint states.

Dash camera footage shows several drivers of the vehicles Vue passed flashed their headlights and honked their horns at him in an effort to alert him to the fact he was driving the wrong way.

Vue, who was in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace during his June 3 court appearance via video from the county jail, was injured in the crash and taken by ambulance to Aurora Medical Center in Grafton before being flown to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa in critical condition.

First-degree reckless homicide is punishable by a maximum 40 years in prison and 20 years of extended supervision. 

First-degree reckless injury is punishable by a maximum 15 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision while first-degree recklessly endangering safety is punishable by a maximum 7-1/2 years in prison and five years of extended supervision.