NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A 64-year-old New Jersey woman has pleaded guilty to murder charges stemming from a crash on the Schuylkill Expressway that killed a Lower Merion firefighter.
Jacqueline Walker wiped her eyes, as she sat in a wheelchair while pleading guilty to third-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and four counts of reckless endangerment.
At about 3 a.m. on July 24, 2021, emergency crews were on the scene of a car crash on westbound I-76 between Gladwyne and Conshohocken.
Walker admitted to driving around emergency cones and onto the shoulder, causing a crash that killed firefighter Thomas Royds and injured two other firefighters and a State Police trooper. Both Royds and the state trooper went airborne and landed in the right lane of westbound I-76.
Royds was a career firefighter who was covering for a fellow firefighter in Belmont Hills that night.
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“These firefighters, the state troopers that responded to the scene to help people … were tragically mowed down by the defendant driving a car that should have never been on the road,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele.
Walker told police after the crash she knew the brakes on her 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee were barely working. The District Attorney’s office said last October that three of the Jeep’s four brakes were not functioning.
She’d been driving around for hours, confused and lost, pulled over by officers from three different New Jersey police departments, and given directions each time.
Walker also said she stopped to buy rum and poured it into a soda while driving, but blood tests found no alcohol in her system.
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“I think all of those things show this sustained recklessness, this sustained malice that she exhibited,” said Steele.
Walker was initially charged with vehicular homicide and driving under the influence, but the charges were upgraded in October to 16 total charges including third-degree murder.
She will be sentenced at a later date. The charges she pleaded guilty to carry a maximum of 68 years in prison, but prosecutors agreed to a cap of 24 years as part of the plea.
Hadas Kuznits contributed to this report.