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SANDPOINT — A Coeur d'Alene man's confession to being behind the wheel of a deadly crash that killed a juvenile passenger in 2017 is being allowed to stand.

Counsel for Jose Franco Sosa Jr. argued the admission should be kept from jurors on grounds that he was not advised of his right to remain silent, but 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan ruled that Sosa's admission was not the product of a custodial interrogation, according to court documents.

Sosa, 59, is charged with vehicular manslaughter at the felony level in connection with the May 15, 2017, crash which killed Joseph T. Neumann, a teen from Rathdrum. Idaho State Police said Sosa was driving northbound on Spirit Lake Cutoff Road near Peregrine Road when he drove off the roadway, struck a series of mailboxes and overturned the Subaru Legacy he was driving.

Neumann was killed in the rollover crash and Sosa was seriously injured, an ISP crash report stated. Sosa was on felony probation and the time of the crash, prompting his probation officer to respond to Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene to determine if Sosa had violated the terms of his probation.

The Idaho Department of Correction official placed Sosa on a mental hold and directed him to be restrained because it was unclear how he would react upon learning that Neumann was killed. Sosa, according to court documents, became upset upon hearing the news and hit his head against the hospital bed's seizure pads. Sosa also allegedly uttered that he was driving.

There was no dispute that Sosa had not been given his warning under Miranda versus Arizona, which requires a person to be informed of their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and their right to remain silent. As a result, Buchanan said the only issue before the court was whether the alleged confession was the product of an interrogation by IDOC official Haley Tate Rose.

Upon Rose's arrival at the hospital, staff advised her Sosa was unaware of the events which brought him there or that Neumann had suffered fatal injuries in the crash. Rose asked Sosa if he remembered why he was hospitalized, according to court records.

Buchanan said in a five-page written ruling issued on Friday that Sosa's admission to being the driver was not the product of an interrogation.

"The court finds that his questioning did not constitute 'interrogation' because these are not questions that Ms. Rose should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from Mr. Sosa," Buchanan said in the ruling.

Moreover, Rose's notification of Neumann's death were also not words that Rose should have known would result in an incriminating response, Buchanan held.

Neumann died of blunt-force head injuries, according to ISP report.

The state police investigation concluded Sosa was driving at least 57 mph in a 45 mph zone. The investigation further revealed that Sosa had amphetamine and the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana in his system at the time of the crash.

Sosa is currently serving a five- to 10-year prison term in a felony driving under the influence case in Kootenai County dating back to 2010. He is also serving concurrent sentences for a 2015 felony eluding charge and a 2016 felony drug possession charge, according to Idaho's iCourt database. He becomes eligible for parole in 2021.

Sosa is being held at the Idaho State Correctional Center near Boise, according to the Idaho Department of Correction.

Sosa is scheduled to be tried on the manslaughter charge in May.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com or followed on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.