NEWARK, Ohio (WCMH) – The trial for a semi truck driver charged in connection with a 2023 crash on Interstate 70 that left six people dead, including three high school students, entered its third day on Thursday after a day off on Wednesday.
Jacob McDonald, 61, of Zanesville, is facing 26 charges, including six third-degree felony counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, nine fourth-degree felony counts of vehicular assault and 11 first-degree misdemeanor counts of assault.
McDonald has opted for a bench trial in Licking County Common Pleas Court, meaning Judge David Branstool will decide his fate rather than a jury. Chief Felony Prosecutor Clifford Murphy will represent the state. Attorney Chris Brigdon will defend McDonald. Watch live coverage in the video player above.
Follow along below for live updates.
Attorneys give closing arguments
Murphy started off his closing argument by saying Nov. 14, 2023 was supposed to be a happy day for the Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School band.
He pointed out that data was active on McDonald’s phone just before the crash.
“He must just be the most unluckiest person in the world that all this data is just ascending or descending to and from his phone within 10 minutes of the fatal collision,” Murphy said.
Murphy said there were no adverse weather conditions on the day of the crash, and there was no visual obstruction that would have prevented McDonald from seeing vehicles in front of him.
“He had one job, literally,” Murphy said. “The seat in that cab is set up for the driver to look forward.”
Murphy stated there is no evidence that McDonald applied his brakes in the crash, and that he believes the state proved McDonald acted recklessly.
Brigdon began his closing argument by referencing back to previous testimony from a two individuals who were on the charter bus, who claimed the bus braked aggressively.
Brigdon stated it is not uncommon for motorists to look out their window to check out another vehicle or something happening outside while driving. “We’ve all done that,” he said. Brigdon claimed taking your eyes off the road momentarily is negligent but not reckless.
He pointed out that AT&T cannot explain exactly what was happening on McDonald’s phone before the crash, and that suggesting he was watching a video or actively manipulating his device is merely a guess.
“The state failed to present any evidence that showed he was reckless,” Brigdon said.
Defense calls second witness
The defense called its second witness, digital forensic analyst Anthony Gentile, to the stand.
Gentile testified a phone can record data transactions while unattended, and that the AT&T records for McDonald’s phone do not specify if he initiated the data usage. Gentile stated there is no way to know exactly what was occurring on a device based on the amount of data it used at a given time.
The defense rested its case after Gentile’s testimony.
State rests case, defense testimony begins
On Thursday, Brigdon called on Sebastian van Nooten, an engineer who works on collision reconstruction with the investigative firm Ambassador Forensic Engineering, to testify.
Nooten said throughout the 30 minutes prior to the crash, data from the semi truck’s Electronic Logging Device shows McDonald was traveling on average between 70 and 71 mph.
He testified based on data from the vehicles involved in the crash, he believes two collisions — including the impact between the semi truck and SUV as well as the SUV and charter bus — overlapped.
Nooten discussed perception response time, or how long it takes a driver to notice a hazard and react. He noted drivers may look at signs on the highway or other vehicles, which can affect response times.
“We can’t say, in the last second, he didn’t observe it, but didn’t have time to execute a meaningful response,” Nooten said.
Nooten said nothing in the data he reviewed suggested McDonald was driving recklessly on the day of the crash.
Murphy cross-examined Nooten and attempted to discredit him, by pointing out the first page of his findings incorrectly stated there were five fatalities in the crash. Murphy asked if it was fair to say there was no driver reaction in the crash, or that McDonald did not break, to which Nooten agreed.
Trial day two: State calls three witnesses
On Tuesday, Murphy called Donald Wagler with the travel company Pioneer Trails to the stand, who was driving the charter bus at the time of the crash.
Just before the crash, Wagler said he saw traffic was decelerating and slowed down. He testified the sun was not in his eyes, he did not have an issue slowing down to the speed of traffic and did not need to brake hard. Wagler said he does not believe there is anything he could have done to prevent the crash. Brigdon cross-examined Wagler, asking if it was possible the vehicle in front of him braked hard, to which Wagler said he did not know.
Sgt. Trevor Jasper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, who is an expert witness in car crash reconstruction, took the stand next. Jasper testified that data obtained from the charter bus did not show any hard braking on the day of the crash. He said data implies the bus was still moving and did not come to a complete stop at the time it was struck. Data shows the bus was traveling 25 mph before an “external force,” or the collision, accelerated it to 43 mph.
Jasper said he does not believe any weather-related factors contributed to the crash and that evidence does not indicate the semi braked in the crash. Jasper also said AT&T records show McDonald’s phone was using data at the time of the crash.
Brigdon pointed out that the AT&T records do not specify if the customer initiated the data usage. He said there are many possible uses of data, such as playing music on iTunes or the automatic update of an app, do not require the user to be actively using their phone.
The final testimony of the day came from Jonathan Buffington, who has previous experience with the U.S. Secret Service. He claimed there is “significant evidence” to suggest that the cellphone in question “was in active use” before the crash, which he noted doesn’t necessarily mean that a person was manipulating the phone, just that it was actively communicating with the network.
Buffington testified it would be unlikely for a phone to be updating at 8 a.m. While a user can initiate an update, he said the system-initiated updates usually happen in off-hour periods. He said because the phone was in “active use,” it could have created an opportunity for McDonald to be distracted.
Brigdon asked why Buffington did not ask AT&T for specifics about what the data was being used for. Buffington responded that he was unable to get that data. Brigdon said there was a similar spike in data earlier in the morning.
Trial day one: State calls 15 witnesses
During opening statements on Monday, Murphy said McDonald was speeding, not watching the roadway, and not paying attention for a period before the crash. Brigdon said that McDonald was operating the truck reasonably and was driving with the flow of traffic. He said the bus had a hard braking event before the crash.
The state called 15 witnesses to the stand, including a senior at Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School who was on the bus at the time of the crash, as well as high school band director Merri Gensley and Assistant Band Director Stephen Tripp.
Multiple witnesses said the bus did brake before the crash, while some said there was nothing abnormal done by the bus driver. One witness said she thought the bus was following traffic too closely.
Prosecutors showed body camera footage from a trooper who was assisting a separate crash further up the road and went back to help after noticing smoke. The video showed the trooper arrive at the scene of the crash and grab a fire extinguisher from his trunk. He helped get a driver out of another car that was involved in the crash. The trooper got on the bus with the fire extinguisher and didn’t see anyone on board. In the video, McDonald was seen sitting in the median.
Josh Chieka, a truck driver who was driving in the eastbound lanes at the time of the crash, stopped to assist. He testified that he was worried about the kids, and helped some of them get off the bus. Chieka was questioned about the stopping distance for a semi truck, which prompted the defense to question whether he was an “expert” on the matter. He said he could stop his semi truck in about 150 yards at 65 mph, but said he would put his truck into a ditch before hitting another vehicle.
Body camera video was also shown in court of a trooper’s interaction with McDonald in the hospital. The trooper said he did not see any evidence that McDonald was impaired or under the influence.
Much of the witness testimony after the lunch break focused on the speed of the truck. Prosecutors showed a report from an Electronic Logging Device, which showed the truck going 74.7 mph two minutes before the crash. The defense called into question the accuracy of the report.
What happened in the crash?
On Nov. 14, 2023, charter bus carrying 54 people connected to the Tuscarawas Valley Middle-High School band was traveling westbound on I-70 toward Columbus for a performance at the Ohio School Boards Association conference. The collision occurred at about 8:50 a.m., when McDonald, driving a 2019 Freightliner semi, failed to decelerate as traffic slowed for a crash further down the highway, according to prosecutors.
McDonald struck an SUV in front of him, occupied by a teacher and two parent chaperones, before driving over it and crashing into the rear of the charter bus. The impact sent the bus into another SUV and a commercial truck, totaling five cars involved in the crash, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board. The semi caught fire, with the flames spreading to the rear of the charter bus. Eighteen people were injured in the incident, and six died.
Pronounced dead at the scene from the bus were students John Mosley, 18, of Mineral City; Jeffery Worrell, 18, of Bolivar; and Katelyn Owens, 15, of Mineral City. Occupants of the SUV that was driving in front of the semi — Dave Kennat, 56, of Navarre; Kristy Gaynor, 39, of Zoar; and Shannon Wigfield, 45, of Bolivar — were also pronounced dead. Kennat was a teacher, and Gaynor and Wigfield were parents serving as chaperones.
Officials tested McDonald after the crash and determined he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to the NTSB. Information from the semi collected by the NTSB showed the truck was traveling at 74.7 mph about one minute prior to the crash. The speed limit where the crash occurred was 70.
A report by the Ohio Department of Public Safety claimed McDonald was trailing too closely in traffic and failed to slow down. In an interview with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, McDonald told investigators that he did not remember the moments leading to the crash.
Data usage from McDonald’s phone showed a peak usage of 39.8 megabytes per minute roughly 10 minutes before the crash, according to the NTSB investigation. The report compares this to someone streaming high-definition videos, which uses 41.7 megabytes per minute. It is unclear if this means he was on his phone or if it was going through an automatic update. Data usage from his phone at the time of the crash could not be retrieved because it was destroyed in the collision.
The NTSB report revealed McDonald had nine prior traffic violations from 2003 to 2022, for offenses such as speeding or following too closely. In one incident in March 2022, he was pulled over in Indiana while driving 75 mph in a 60 mph zone. The law enforcement officer who pulled him over said at the time that McDonald’s phone was open to a video game, but he was unable to prove McDonald had been using the game while driving.