Charges not filed days after fatal Columbia crash
Several days after a deadly Columbia crash charges have not been filed against a man police said caused the colision while fleeing the scene of another crash.
Police said Lukas Evans, 20, was leaving the scene of a car crash at Stadium Boulevard and West Boulevard when he crossed into the other lane on West Boulevard near Prospect Street. Jordan Hoyt, 37, was killed in the head-on collision.
The Boone County prosecutor’s office declined to comment about the case or potential charges and a Columbia Police Department spokesman said he had no new information to provide in the case. But prosecutors have a few options if they decide to pursue charges against Evans, former Cole County prosecutor Bill Tackett said.
Tackett said depending on the circumstances of the crash Evans could be charged with murder, manslaughter of enhanced DWI, if alcohol was a factor in the crash.
In Missouri a hit and run can be considered a felony if the person hit was injured or if the accident causes $1,000 or more in damages.
Missouri law allows prosecutors to charge a suspect with murder if someone dies in connection with the commission of a separate felony — leaving the scene of a crash, in this case.
However, if Evans was not intoxicated, Tackett said the cleanest way to charge Evans would be involuntary manslaughter.
“If you take intoxication out of it, then you start looking at ‘Did he put others at substantial risk of injury while operating a motor vehicle?'” Tackett said.
The crash occurred in front of Steve Weinberg’s house. Weinberg said his wife was in the kitchen at the time of the crash and went out to see what happened when she heard it.
“It turns out that we know the mother of the woman who died,” he said. “It turned out to be really gut-wrenching. “
Weinberg said the police have been out several times to the site of the crash since Saturday.
Court records show Evans was issued speeding tickets last year in Boone County and in Lake Lotowana in western Missouri. He was accused of going 31 to 35 mph over the speed limit in one case and 20 to 25 mph over in the other.
