HILLSBORO, MO (KMOX)--Charges for Colby McCreary were reduced due to lack of evidence to convict for a DWI crash in April of 2023 where his wife Savannah died. McCreary was a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department at the time of the crash and was off-duty driving his personal vehicle.
In June of 2023, he was charged with two Class C felonies: Driving While Intoxicated Resulting in the Death of Another and Involuntary Manslaughter.
In a press release on Friday, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Trisha Stefanski announced the charges had been amended to a lesser DWI charge of a Class B misdemeanor.
"We are ethically obligated to not proceed with charges where we do not believe we can prove them beyond reasonable doubt," Stefanski said.
New evidence from the vehicle's "black box" partially changed her office's approach.
From the press release: The crash reconstruction report incorporates evidence obtained from the scene, from witnesses, and from the vehicle, including the event data recorder (EDR) inside the vehicle. That report included several findings:
• Neither person in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt.
• A passenger in a second vehicle that had been travelling with the McCreary
vehicle indicated she had "put her butt in the window" as they passed the
McCreary vehicle in the left lane just prior to the crash.
• Prior to the crash, the right front passenger seat's occupant size classification registered as "child", and given the Savannah McCreary's actual weight, indicates that she was not fully in her seat in the five seconds before the crash.
• The vehicle was traveling at 86 miles per hour prior to the crash and was travelling at 74 miles per hour at the time of impact, with the speed slowing 1.3 seconds before impact.
• The vehicle was traveling straight down the highway until 1.8 seconds before
impact, when the wheel was abruptly turned in a clockwise direction. This caused the vehicle to veer to the right. It is unknown what led to this turn of the steering wheel.
• The shift lever was in the "drive" position until 1.5 seconds before impact, when it was moved to the left, which occurred just after the steering wheel was abruptly turned. The abrupt turn of the steering wheel could have cause an unrestrained passenger to come into contact with the shifter, causing it to move to the left.
• Then, at 1.1 seconds before impact, the wheel was turned counterclockwise. The vehicle's rate of spinning then slowed as the driver appeared to counter-steer just before impact.
• The vehicle drove off the right side of the road, crossed a ditch, impacted a small rock bluff, then overturned. Both occupants of the vehicle were ejected. Savannah's lower body was exposed.
• Once the abrupt steering occurred, it was not possible for the driver to regain control of the vehicle before it impacted the bluff.
• There was no evidence of mechanical failure or roadway issues that contributed to the crash.
"We thought that there was some horseplay going on," Stefanski said, "that it was the defendant who had caused the accident. When this information came out…not just our office but other people were also in shock as well. To go from the charge that we had down to what we have to go down to, because there's no other statute that covers it, is very very disappointing."
With the reduced charge, the maximum sentence for Colby McCreary is six months in jail or a $1000 fine.
The first hearing in the case is Thursday.
