photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

William Ray Klingler appears Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

A habitual DUI offender who’s accused in the hit-and-run death of a KU student last November was ordered on Monday to stand trial in a separate DUI incident that allegedly occurred just nine weeks before the student’s death.

If convicted, the DUI would be the fourth or more for William Ray Klingler. Douglas County Deputy District Attorney David Melton provided Judge Stacey Donovan with three journal entries showing prior convictions.

Two sergeants with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office testified Monday at the preliminary hearing of Klingler, who is accused in the death of Elsa McGrain, a 20-year-old KU student from Nebraska. McGrain’s body was found at the side of East 1500 Road where she had been jogging on Nov. 7, 2025. Klingler had allegedly been making a DoorDash delivery in the area at the time.

The sergeants on Monday testified that in the incident on Aug. 30, 2025, Klingler was pulled over shortly after midnight when he was observed driving with a missing headlight.

Sgt. Chase Reiling said he pulled Klingler’s truck over and observed a “very, very strong” odor of alcohol. It soon became clear that Klingler had no valid driver’s license, no insurance, an expired license tag and no ignition interlock, Reiling said.

Reiling said Klingler told him he was going to Eudora, but the route he was on didn’t go that way.

“I don’t think he really knew where he was going or where he was at,” Reiling testified, saying that prior to the traffic stop Klingler had “oddly” driven down a private drive, then back onto the road.

Klingler denied that he had been drinking or that his headlight was out, Reiling said. Reiling added that he tested the light and found that it did not illuminate when the bright lights were on but did so when the regular lights were on.

Reiling called for backup to conduct a DUI investigation. That’s when Sgt. Chase Coleman showed up and spoke to Klingler. Coleman testified that Klingler’s eyes were watery and bloodshot, that he smelled of alcohol and that his speech was slow and slurred.

Coleman conducted a variety of field sobriety tests on Klingler and asked him for a breath sample, which he refused to provide.

Klingler was arrested and his truck was searched. The sergeants said they found a half bottle of whiskey in the bed of the truck behind the driver’s area and a hypodermic needle in a backpack, which later KBI tests indicated contained methamphetamine. They also found two empty syringes under the seat.

Because Klingler refused to take a breath test, Coleman applied for a search warrant, then drove Klingler to LMH Health, where his blood was drawn more than two hours after the traffic stop. That blood sample tested positive for methamphetamine and another illegal drug, according to a KBI report.

Defense attorney Angelo Panas-Cabrera attempted to cast doubt on the state’s narrative, noting via cross-examination that Klingler hadn’t been stumbling or swaying; had other reasons, like simply being tired, to explain his bloodshot eyes; and had an attention deficit disorder and a learning disability that could account for the way he responded to the field sobriety tests. Panas-Cabrera also pressed the sergeants on there being nothing illegal about going down the private driveway.

Neither Melton nor Panas-Cabrera offered arguments after the testimony Monday, and Judge Donovan found probable cause to bind Klingler over on the felony count of fourth or subsequent DUI.

Klingler was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing this month in the hit-and-run case; however, a continuance was granted in that case until Nov. 12 because video evidence has not been made available. The attorneys noted that with the sheriff’s system being down it may take some time – a reference to a cyber attack that has affected the sheriff’s office computer system.

Though Klingler allegedly drove under the influence in August 2025, he was not charged until March 2026, four months after McGrain’s death. Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis told the Journal-World that the delay was due to his office not receiving Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab reports until January of this year.

Klingler had also been charged with multiple misdemeanors that he allegedly committed two days after McGrain’s death when he was still at large, as the Journal-World reported.