PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A West Virginia man is on trial in Montgomery County for killing a pregnant woman in a head-on collision in Lower Providence Township last summer.
The family of 31-year-old Kellie Adams sobbed as the jury saw a video of the crash that killed her and her unborn child in August 2022.
Defendant Everett Clayton, 57, dabbed at his eyes as the 27-minute video concluded. It showed Clayton driving a Ford F-650 dump truck across Montgomery County, starting at Sumneytown Pike and Route 202, and ending just after the crash on South Park Avenue in Lower Providence Township.
Prosecutors then showed 15 short excerpts from the video, which they say shows Clayton speeding and driving recklessly with indifference to others on the road.
But Clayton’s lawyers pointed out that, while Clayton was driving for 25 minutes in the video, the clips that prosecutors showed were a total of about 35 seconds in an effort to make it look like he was driving more dangerously.
Defense attorneys concede Clayton is guilty of homicide by vehicle, but say he’s not guilty of murder.
But prosecutors say, in addition to driving recklessly, Clayton didn’t have a driver’s license and had been drinking. They say, while his blood alcohol level was just under the legal limit, he was driving an 18,000-pound commercial vehicle and federal law prohibits any alcohol before driving.
A crash reconstruction expert blames speed for the incident. He says the force of the crash was so great, it bent the frame of the dump truck. He says he’s never seen that kind of damage to a commercial vehicle when a passenger car was involved.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning.