The Lancaster County Attorney's Office has reduced two felony motor-vehicle homicide charges to misdemeanors in the case of a Miami trucker accused of running over several cars and killing a La Vista father and son who were on their way to a Husker football game this fall. Â
Lancaster County Attorney Patrick Condon said Thursday his office reviewed the case of Yorkwind Crawford, 50, and didn't believe it could prove any of the underlying factors that might lead to felony motor vehicle homicide convictions: drunken driving, driving under revocation or reckless driving.
So Crawford now faces two misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide charges for the deaths of Mark Kaipust, 41, and Taylor Kaipust, 7. Each misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail, instead of the three years in prison he could have faced for each felony charge.
Asked what facts led him to the reduction, Condon deferred. "I don't try my cases in the media. I just don't comment on open cases."Â
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Crawford's attorney, Jim McGough of Omaha, said his client was not drunk or on drugs and was not on his phone at the time of the fatal collision Sept. 4 that sent five other people to a hospital. The Kaipusts died at the scene near the 27th Street interchange of Interstate 80.Â
This isn't the first time truck drivers have faced only misdemeanors after crashing their semi-trailers into cars, to tragic results. A Creighton student, Joan Ocampo-Yambing of Rosemont, Minnesota, died on I-80 in Omaha when a semi driver, Robert Richmond, rear-ended her car and others in August 2017. Richmond faced a misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide charge and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.Â
A Sarpy County judge reduced felony charges to misdemeanors after an Omaha concrete truck driver, Austin Holloway, turned a corner near 120th Street and Giles Road in July 2018 and his cement truck toppled over, killing Omaha residents Phil Hertel and Michael Dearden, who were in a car at a stoplight.
And in a remarkably similar case to Crawford's, a Florida truck driver, Tony Weekly, was sentenced to 180 days in jail and two years' probation for misdemeanor motor-vehicle homicide for a July 2016 crash that killed six people. Authorities said Weekly was distracted and failed to slow in a construction zone on I-80 in western Nebraska, killing five members of a family from Minnesota and a sixth person in a separate car.Â
Matt Skradski, friends with Mark Kaipust and his family for more than 25 years, said the reduction in charges against Crawford was "confounding to me."Â
"And the people I talk to are just as confounded," said Skradski, an Omaha police officer who knew Mark Kaipust since they were freshmen at Omaha Gross High School. "To me, you need to answer to the community. If dropping the charges is justified, then tell us why.Â
"It's insulting to the family and friends of the victims. Their lives meant much more than the possible punishment this guy now faces."Â Â
Case law in Nebraska has established that mere speeding does not constitute reckless driving and, therefore, cannot by itself constitute felony motor vehicle homicide. However, speeding and distracted driving can be felonious.Â
But McGough said it's his understanding that Crawford was not on his phone at the time of the crash. Crawford himself told a trooper that he was traveling in the "slow lane" and told another driver, "I looked in my mirror" and when he looked back through the windshield, he collided with the rear of a pickup that had slowed due to traffic backing up, according to a trooper's report.
Crawford veered into the middle lane, hit several additional cars and came to a stop against the median barrier. In all, Crawford's truck hit seven vehicles.Â
"The driver of the seventh vehicle stated 'the semi showed no signs of slowing down. I saw a car flip, I saw one careen into the median and burst into flames. I sincerely believe all of this occurred because the semi driver was distracted,'" according to a trooper's affidavit. Â
McGough said he expects his client to plead no contest to the misdemeanor charges at a February hearing.
Civil litigation is expected against Crawford and the trucking company he drove for.Â