http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070716/NEWS/70716013
Police: Driver used crack before truck crash killed family of 5
The Associated Press
PINE BLUFF, ARK. - A truck driver told state police he used crack
cocaine hours before his big rig crashed head-on into a car, killing a
young mother and her four children, Jefferson County Chief Deputy
Prosecutor Kyle Hunter said in court Monday.
Roy Lee Jordan, 57, of Benton, Miss., was ordered held on five counts
of felony negligent homicide in the Saturday deaths of LaKetria Wells,
26, of Monticello, a prison guard at the state ***mins Unit, and her
four children.
Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis ordered bond set at $100,000, and Jordan was
returned to the county jail. He is to appear in court again July 30.
Hunter read a probable cause statement, written by a state police
investigator, that said Jordan admitted he used crack cocaine within
six hours of the accident and told state police he wasn't sure how he
got on U.S. 425, where the accident occurred. Jordan also had been
stopped in Hamburg for speeding earlier that day, Hunter said.
In a search of the cab after the accident, state police found a crack
pipe, the prosecutor said. Jordan has no prior felony record and his
driving record before the accident was "not bad," Hunter said.
Killed along with their mother in the crash shortly after noon were
LaKiyah Wells, 7; Kaleb Jarrell Stokes, 5; Keyshon Wells, 4; and
LaKayla Wells, 2.
State Correction Department spokeswoman Dina Tyler said Wells had been
a guard at ***mins since April 2006.
"To have all of them go at once, and in the manner they did, I tell
you, everyone out at that scene, from the EMTs to the firefighters to
our troopers, hurt for that family," Arkansas State Police Sgt. David
Sims told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Blood and urine samples were taken to the state Crime Laboratory in
Little Rock for drug and alcohol screening, state police said.
Jordan was driving for 3J Trucking Company Inc. Jimmy Boatner, owner
of the Vaughan, Miss., trucking company, said the company checked
Jordan's background before he was hired three months ago and found
Jordan had a clean driving record. Boatner said Jordan was
trans****ting boxes of dry ice when the accident occurred.
Boatner said the crash was the only major accident by a company driver
in the company's six years of operation.
State police said Wells was driving south, toward Star City and
Monticello beyond, with her oldest child in the front seat and the
other three children in the back seat. The truck was heading north and
crossed the center line and hit Wells' car head on, according to the
police re****t
"What it seems like right now is that the driver of the 18-wheeler
fell asleep or lost consciousness before his rig crossed the center
line," Trooper Oscar Bullard Jr. said. "It seems like this was
something that could have been avoided."
A witness told investigators that, about an hour before the crash, the
big rig was parked on the side of the highway and Jordan was slumped
over the steering wheel, asleep. Another witness told police that
before the accident, the truck driver appeared to be struggling to
stay awake and was lurching across lanes on the four-lane but
undivided highway.
Bullard said neither driver was speeding. He said the weather
conditions were clear and the road was dry. Bullard said U.S. 425
between Pine Bluff and Star City is not a particularly dangerous
stretch of road.
Christian Brothers Funeral Home in Monticello was handling funeral
arrangements.
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