MARSHFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A tractor-trailer driver who told authorities, “God told me to do it” after causing a deadly southwestern Missouri crash has been sentenced to five years of probation.
The Springfield News-Leader reports 35-year-old Adam Housley of Mountain
Grove was sentenced Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in February to two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Housley was initially charged with second-degree murder after the January 2017 crash on U.S. 60 in Seymour that killed 48-year-old Tisha Briggs and her 47-year-old fiance, Leo Walker.
But Webster County Prosecutor Ben Berkstresser told the victims’ relatives he lacked evidence to support the murder charges because Housley’s truck didn’t have a collision avoidance system.
Charging documents say Housley was looking at his cellphone and didn’t try to stop before rear-ending the victims’ stopped vehicle.
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