The trial for the semi-truck driver accused of causing the deadly 2023 crash on I-70 in Licking County began Monday.
Jacob McDonald, 61, is accused of recklessly driving his semi truck in Nov. 2023 and causing a four-vehicle crash on I-70. The crash killed six people, including three high school band students traveling from Tuscarawas County to Columbus.
A Licking County grand jury charged McDonald with 26 counts, including vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and assault. The six people who died included John Mosley, 18, Jeffery Worrell, 18, Katelyn Owens, 15, Dave Kennat, 56, Kristy Gaynor, 39, and Shannon Wigfield, 46.
McDonald pleaded not guilty to the charges. McDonald also opted for a bench trial, meaning Judge David Branstool will render a verdict rather than a jury.
The court heard opening statements from Licking County Prosecutor Cliff Murphy and Defense Attorney Chris Brigdon. The court also heard from more than a dozen witnesses, including a student injured during the crash, the driver of the second semi involved in the crash and a state trooper who responded to the scene.
Murphy will argue during the trial McDonald was speeding and distracted by his phone.
"The court will see evidence from the state's experts, witnesses in this particular case, that when someone is looking at a cell phone, they only have time to look up partially and watch traffic," Murphy said.
Brigdon said the NTSB report left out a lot of details that he plans to talk about to the court. He said testimony from witnesses will show there isn't enough evidence to show McDonald was using his phone.
"Your honor, this case should've never been brought in felony court, and I look forward to proving that to you," Brigdon said.
McDonald's truck collided with several vehicles that day near State Route 310, including a charter bus filled with Tusky Valley High School band students set to perform that day at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
The chain of vehicles was approaching a construction zone further west on the highway and traffic was beginning to slow. The crash reports from the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the National Transportation Safety Board shows McDonald's semi was at the rear of the chain.
The report states the semi first hit a small SUV carrying chaperones for the high school students. That car was destroyed as the truck ran over it and hit the back of the bus. The bus then hit another SUV which spun off to the side. The bus also hit the back of another semi truck.
The collision caused McDonald's truck to catch fire. The flames engulfed the truck and its multi-ton load of car batteries along with the charter bus.
The report said that about 10 minutes before the crash, McDonald's phone data usage hit 39.8 megabytes per minute. According to a phone company the report cited, streaming videos in HD uses 41.7 megabytes of data per minute.
Brigdon called the argument about the data usage spikes a "phenomenon" that he thinks he can disprove. “Nobody can tell you what the data meant,” Brigdon said.
Tusky Valley's band director Merri Gensley testified she blacked out after the initial crash. She was the second witness to testify and said a student yelling about the fire is what snapped her out of it.
"(A student said) 'the bus is on fire. The bus is on fire.' When he said that, I snapped out of it. Whatever I was in... that's what got me out of whatever daze I was in," Gensley said.
Gensley said she then tried to get all of the students off the bus.
Gensley and the other witnesses inside and outside of the charter bus argued that they didn't notice the bus driving erratically. They also said they didn't think the bus driver was distracted before the crash.
Robert Wolverton drove a Toyota Highland that was hit by the charter bus. His car spun out into the left lane and was totaled by the crash. Wolverton testified about the crash and the injuries he received.
Wolverton said surviving the crash was "God's miracle." "State trooper Shawn (Grim) reached in with a Good Samaritan and pulled me out of a car," Wolverton said.
Wolverton said he suffered a broken neck and broken back.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Shawn Grim was one of the many first responders who went to the scene of the crash. Grim and the court was shown his body camera footage from that day.
Grim arrived at the scene and helped Wolverton from the wreckage of his SUV. Grim also grabbed a fire extinguisher and entered the bus, calling out to see if anyone was still inside.
Once Grim was outside, he also assessed the injuries of the victims outside of the bus.
Video footage played at the trial shows Grim approach and ask McDonald if he knew what happened after the crash. Grim testified that McDonald said he did not know what happened.
Prosecutors played multiple videos of the crash from police body cameras and dashboard cameras from cars at the scene.
Multiple family members of the crash victims and students at Tusky Valley were present at the trial.
The trial is expected to resume on Tuesday.
