The trial of Jacob McDonald, the semi-truck driver accused of causing a fatal chain-reaction crash on I-70, is set to resume Thursday.
The prosecution has finished with their witness and is expected to present evidence, then rest their case. The defense says they have two witnesses.
You can watch the morning session of day 3 in the player below. The trial is expected to begin at 9 a.m.
The semi-truck collided with a van and then a charter bus carrying the Tusky Valley Marching Band in 2023. Among the victims were three students, two chaperones, and a teacher.
John (Wyatt) Mosley, 18Jeffery (J.D.) Worrell, 18Katelyn Owens, 15Shannon Wigfield, 45Kristy Gaynor, 39Dave Kennat, 56
Prosecutors allege that on November 14, 2023, McDonald failed to slow his semi-truck on Interstate 70 near Etna, leading to a collision with a car and triggering a catastrophic chain reaction. A charter bus carrying members of the Tuscarawas Valley High School marching band caught fire.
Prosecutors showed body-worn camera video of state troopers questioning the semi driver accused in a deadly crash that killed six as his trial began in a Licking County courtroom Monday.
McDonald is facing 26 charges in connection with the incident.
During Tuesday’s court proceedings, an Ohio Highway Patrol sergeant testified that McDonald did not slow down his semi before the impact. Prosecutors allege that McDonald was distracted by his phone at the time of the crash.
McDonald sat in court as prosecutors played video of him answering questions in the hospital. He repeatedly stated he could not recall the moments leading up to the crash.
“The first thing I remember, the only thing I remember, is seeing fire outside my truck,” McDonald said in the video.
A federal crash investigation report indicated a spike in data usage on McDonald’s phone, similar to watching a video, approximately 10 minutes before the incident. However, McDonald’s defense attorney questioned the data, arguing it didn’t show what the data usage was for.
“ATT doesn’t tell you what user activity is,” defense attorney Chris Brigdon said. “They tell you only volume of data. The session interface. They can’t tell you what it was at all.”
There was another accident earlier that Brigdon argued factored into the crash.
Jacob McDonald was operating in freightliner in a reasonable manner, as any other truck driver on the road today would be.”
McDonald, in the video at the hospital, could be heard telling troopers that he had nothing to hide.
“You don’t remember how fast you were going or anything like that or if you were distracted by anything?” a trooper asked.
“Probably doing about, no. The last I remember I doing close to 70,” he replied.
The trial was delayed to this week from its originally scheduled start date back in February. It is a bench trial, meaning only a judge — and not a jury — is hearing the case.
McDonald, whose charges include six counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, has been in custody on a $1 million bond since he was arrested.
