A Casper man will be tried on a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide in a March crash that killed a 72-year-old woman, a judge ruled Thursday.

Justin Daniel Breazeale, 23, also is charged with driving under the influence causing serious bodily injury. He faces up to 30 years imprisonment if convicted.

He remains jailed on a $100,000 bond.

Natrona County Circuit Court Judge Michael Huber ordered Breazeale bound over for trial in state district court after hearing arguments from District Attorney Mike Blonigen and Breazeale's public defender Rob Oldham during a preliminary hearing. A preliminary hearing determines whether a crime has been committed and whether there is enough evidence that the accused may have committed it.

Police believe Breazeale was behind the wheel of a Ford pickup involved in a March 15 head-on collision near the intersection of Second and Pennsylvania streets. The driver of the other car, Madeline Rakestraw, died at Wyoming Medical Center about an hour after the crash.

The impact knocked Rakestraw's car back about 50 feet and sent the truck into a metal storage container near the east side Albertsons grocery store.

Casper police detective Stacia Francisco, during questioning by Blonigen, said Breazeale's girlfriend was riding in the pickup and was looking down when she felt the truck swerve from the inside eastbound lane of East Second Street to the outside westbound lane.

After the crash, inspections indicated there was no braking or mechanical problems with the pickup, Francisco said.

That led police to suspect Breazeale - who had blacked out - was impaired, and tests after the crash indicated he had cocaine in his blood and urine, she said.

Police also found a straw for a can of Dust Off - a brand of pressurized air for cleaning electronic equipment - on the truck's floor, she said.

Under cross examination by Oldham, Francisco said she was not able to ask Breazeale's girlfriend if he had been huffing the Dust Off because she was hysterical.

However, police found a receipt from Office Max showing Breazeale bought the Dust Off with his credit card six minutes before the accident.

Two weeks before this accident, Breazeale had blacked out and crashed a vehicle into a pole,and officers found a piece of cellophane with traces of cocaine on it, she said.

Blonigen's other witness was forensic toxicologist Cynthia Burbach with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Besides the testing for cocaine, her lab also tested the blood and urine for inhalants and found nothing, Burbach said.

That's because difluroethane, the chemical that propels the air in Dust Off, is so volatile that it leaves no trace, she said.

Difluroethane alone can cause dizziness, black-outs, and death if the lungs collapse, she said.

That chemical also multiplies the effects of cocaine use, which starts as a rush, continues as a good feeling, then causes a "crash" when the brain doesn't produce epinephrine, Burbach said.

Some cocaine users use inhalants for a quick rush to counteract the cocaine crash, but the volatility of the difloroethane causes its own crash, she said. "It's a fast high and comes down very fast."

The chances are good that using both chemicals will cause a blackout, Burbach said.

That appears to have happened with Breazeale, she said. "It's spot-on classic."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog.