As the trial began in the Marion County Court, the attorneys for Lincoln Smith, the long-distance truck driver accused of seven charges of involuntary homicide in a fatal accident in Interestatal 5, revealed their defense.
Authorities have been aware for a long time that Smith, who was 54 years old, was under the influence of drugs when his semirremolque Freightliner drove towards the I-5’s northern arc and struck the rear end of a truck carrying 11 workers carrying agr colas, killing seven of them.
However, the defense attorney Tiffany Humphrey stated that Smith just passed out on his own volante and was not affected by a mixture that mica had inhaled with two unidentified autoestopists the previous evening.
Lincoln Smith started his journey to travel to a place of relaxation, but it ended abruptly because he was sleeping, he said. And when you’re despert, you’re choc with the furgoneta’s cost.
However, the fiscal authorities maintain that Smith repeatedly used drugs in the street, but they later confessed from a hospital camera when a state official with a valid police certificate obtained authorization to register Smith’s bolsillos.
According to Jessica Spooner, the fiscal adjunta of the state, the official discovered a black frame containing speed, argot for metanfetamina, and Smith’s blood samples showed evidence of this drug along with coca na, fentanilo, and morfina.
“I was in a public place under the influence of intoxicating substances,” he said.
Daniel Wren, the circuit judge, presided over a courtroom filled with relatives of the seven employees, including several who could be heard sobbing as pictures of the horrific scene of the vehicle accident were shown.
Around 2:00 p.m. on May 18, 2023, the accident occurred and killed Juan Carlos Leyva-Carillo, 37; Gabriel Juarez-Tovilla, 58; Alejandra Espinoza-Carpio, 39; Eduardo Lopez-Lopez, 31; Luis Enrique Gomez-Reyes, 30; Alejandro Jimenez Hernandez, 36; and Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30.
Three other employees were killed: Ibis Torres-Rangel, Maria Flores-Martinez, and Jose Eduardo Solis-Flores. The group lived in the Salem neighborhood and returned home after a while after resolving disagreements.
Smith, who has three sons and lives in northern California, has been in the Salem County Court since his hospital arrest. Smith led the jury of nine women and five men, including two suplentes, to semirremolques, according to the defense attorney Humphrey’s abogada.
According to Humphrey, Smith and his dog, Bear, left California as usual around two in the morning on May 17 and headed north, picking up two desconocidos in Oregon and then leaving that evening at 5:30 p.m.
Before leaving the camp, they got separated, took some drugs, and gave the defensor a statement outlining their tolerance to the intoxicating substances. El Sr. Smith has been using drugs intermittently for many years and uses them in his free time.
Following this, according to the defensor’s abogada, Smith was in Sutherlin, but he stopped going there earlier than usual and tried to find a place to rest. “The truckero was found sleeping and choking with another semirremolque and the workers’ agr colas,” the defense said.
Humphrey asked the judge to rule that Smith was not guilty or, in his fault, to choose the lesser charge of negligent homicide rather than involuntary homicide in second grade. For a first-time offender, the penalty for careless homicide is conditional liberty.
The tax authorities maintain that both vehicles were legally parked alongside the autopista at the exit of the descanso area.
During the March 28, 2025, trial in the Marion County Court, the prosecutor, Jessica Spooner, spoke about Lincoln Smith, who is accused of killing seven employees in a car accident in the Interestatal on May 5, 2023.Statesman Journal/Kevin Neri
The fiscal adjunta, Spooner, stated that Adon Garcia-Garcia, the furgoneta’s conductor, had arrived to review a report that included tools and a port or ba for the workers.
Garcia-Garcia saw the white car, which had a fifty-piece remolque with the Target emblem, moving forward at full speed while it was being lowered, according to Spooner. Sobrevivi, but they were killed by their brother and sister.
The state’s first witness, Julie McCrae, a domestic nurse, testified that Smith’s semirremolque repeatedly veered away from his carril right for several minutes and that she was so alarmed that she called 911 two minutes before the accident in the milla 241 occurred.
While waiting for a state police officer to respond to the call, a grabacin captured his jadeo.
The first thing I saw was blood, which was evident on the trail section of the walk. After an amputated pie.
While McCrae was talking, a judge stood with a pa uelo. Smith joined their hands and pressed his face toward them as a monitor displayed the destroyed furgoneta.
The fiscal authorities maintain that there is a clear case of an experimented truck driver who causes the conscious to be intoxicated. In second grade, involuntary homicide carries a maximum sentence of six to three months in state prison.
contributes to the autopista’s velocity via the arc n. “The testigos did not see the freno lights,” the fiscal said. In the tribunal’s escalones, they do not give up their sense of justice.
The trial is scheduled till the pr ximo mi rcoles.
To translate the original English content into Spanish, artificial intelligence is used. A Hispanic-speaking periodist revised the text.
For The Oregonian/OregonLive, Zane Sparling covers court cases and current events. You can reach them at 503-319-7083, [email protected], or @pdxzane.
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