LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled a driver
wasn’t criminally negligent when his pickup truck crashed into another vehicle, killing a family of four.
The court’s majority determined Thursday there’s no evidence Benjamin Ward
Ledwell was speeding, driving erratically, under the influence of alcohol or using a phone during the crash in 2015.
Ledwell, of Texarkana, collided with a minivan in an opposite lane of Arkansas Highway 7, killing Cindy and Allen Rhein and their two children, Steven and Anthony Sprankle.
A jury convicted Ledwell in 2018 on four counts of negligent homicide and
handed him a suspended sentence.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports the high court decided 4-3 to
overturn Ledwell’s convictions.
A dissenting opinion said Ledwell was driving erratically and his
convictions should be upheld.
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