Relatives of crash victim Kellie Adams lined a courthouse hallway as Everett Clayton, the driver accused of killing Adams, was escorted to his homicide trial. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)
NORRISTOWN — A jury determined that the unlicensed operator of an 18,000-pound dump truck, who was speeding and had alcohol in his system, showed extreme indifference to the value of human life while driving and convicted him of murder in connection with a head-on crash that killed a pregnant Lansdale woman and her unborn child.
Everett James Clayton, 57, of Charleston, W. Va., showed no outward emotion in Montgomery County Court as the jury convicted him of charges of third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child in connection with the 2:59 p.m. Aug. 25, 2022, fatal, two-vehicle crash in Lower Providence that claimed the lives of Kellie Adams, who was eight months pregnant, and her child, Emersyn Grace Adams, who was stillborn.
Adams’ husband, Jason, her parents, Dean and Cindy Miller, and sisters, Stephanie and Jaclyn Miller, wept openly and embraced one another in the courtroom after the verdict was announced. Family members said they felt Kellie’s spirit in the courtroom throughout the three-day trial. An emotional Jason Adams said the verdict came on what he believed would have been Emersyn’s first birthday.
“They’re both here. There’s a significance behind that. Today would have been Emersyn’s first birthday. I think that’s important… because while she never got a chance to breathe this air, she will live on and there will be positive things to come,” said Jason Adams, his eyes welling with tears. “Nothing is going to bring them back however, the appropriate level of justice for Kellie and Emersyn we feel was served today.”
Cindy Miller said she felt “a sense of solace” as the verdict was announced.
Dean Miller thanked investigators, prosecutors, family, friends and the community for the support shown for the Adams and Miller families during the tragedy.
“Everybody has just done more than we could have ever anticipated and we have the outcome we desired to get, justice for Kellie and Emersyn,” Dean Miller said, adding “Her spirit is here,” referring to his daughter.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated about three hours before reaching the verdict.
Judge William R. Carpenter will sentence Clayton later this year. Each of the third-degree murder charges carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
Kellie Adams, a mother of two boys, was a 2009 graduate of North Penn High School and was a middle and high school teacher at Cottage Seven Academy in Phoenixville.
“The family in this case has suffered a tremendous loss. (Kellie) left behind two sons, a husband, siblings, parents, who cared deeply about her. She was an important person in her community. She was a teacher, loved by her community members and her students. We had a full courtroom of people grieving who really miss her, who are happy to see some justice today,” said Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Hughes who prosecuted the case with First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr.
Arguing that Clayton was unlicensed, speeding, driving recklessly and with alcohol in his system, McCann and Hughes sought a conviction of third-degree murder, which required a finding of malice, specifically that an offender acted with an extreme indifference to the value of human life.
“I think the evidence showed that he drove an 18,000-pound truck like it was a sports car through multiple communities in Montgomery County. His driving was reckless,” McCann said about Clayton.
“I appreciate the jury’s work on this. It’s not an easy case. Vehicle cases and murder are very rare but I think that given the circumstances that we saw in this case, it was a just verdict. I’m just relieved and gratified by it,” McCann added.
The jury rejected lesser charges of homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter, which defense lawyers James P. Lyons and Benjamin Cooper argued were the more appropriate charges.
Homicide by vehicle, a felony punishable by a possible maximum sentence of 3½ to 7 years in prison, occurs when someone violates traffic laws with gross negligence and causes the death of another person.
A person commits involuntary manslaughter when they cause the death of another person while acting in a reckless or grossly negligent manner.
“We’re disappointed in the verdict. We thought the evidence was insufficient to establish malice required for third-degree. There will be an appeal,” said Lyons, adding the “sympathy factor in this case was enormous.” “It’s one of the saddest cases that you can imagine.”
Lyons said Clayton was “devastated by this as well.”
“Obviously, it was not intended. It was an accident in which he was quite negligent and there’s a price to pay for that and that would be involuntary manslaughter,” Lyons maintained.
The crash involved a 2003 Ford F650 XLT Super Duty dump truck operated by Clayton and a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe operated by Adams. Clayton was traveling southbound in the 500 block of South Park Avenue and Adams was traveling northbound at the time of the crash.
The two-lane roadway includes a double yellow line in the center dividing the northbound and southbound lanes and also includes a grooved pavement that alerts drivers if they begin to move from the lane, according to testimony.
The roadway has a posted 40 mph speed limit and vehicles approaching a curve in the southbound direction pass a posted traffic control warning indicator advising of the curve with a recommended speed of 25 mph, according to testimony.
Testimony revealed Clayton was traveling about 58 mph shortly before entering the curve in the roadway, about 650 feet before the impact between the two vehicles.
During the investigation, detectives recovered a cellphone video depicting Clayton’s driving habits for more than 25 minutes leading up to the fatal crash. Clayton, according to testimony, had been recording video on his cellphone, which was located on his vehicle’s dashboard, facing out the front windshield, as he traveled 13 miles through four jurisdictions including Upper Gwynedd, North Wales, Worcester and Lower Providence.
During the trial, prosecutors argued the video footage showed Clayton excessively speeding, tailgating other vehicles and continuously operating his vehicle in a reckless manner, including a near-miss incident with two other vehicles several miles before the fatal crash.
“What happened is inevitable. He’s going almost 58 mph into that curve in an 18,000-pound truck. This is driving a machine that can cause death,” McCann argued during his closing statement to jurors, maintaining Clayton disregarded the risk that his conduct could cause injury or death to others.
Clayton did not testify during the trial.
Lyons and Cooper conceded that Clayton committed homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter but they argued Clayton’s conduct did not rise to murder.
“He didn’t intend to cause harm. It’s a horrible accident. He made mistakes. He didn’t do everything perfect, we know that. But he didn’t act like a murderer,” Cooper argued during his closing statement to jurors.
Lyons and Cooper argued the only factor that played a role in the crash was Clayton’s speed and suggested homicide by vehicle and involuntary manslaughter were the more appropriate charges.
During an interview by police, Clayton advised that he had consumed an alcoholic beverage at lunch and an additional alcoholic beverage about 30 minutes before the crash and maintained he was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash. Officers at the scene, observed Clayton holding a plastic bag containing additional containers of beer, according to the criminal complaint filed by Lower Providence Police Sergeant Ryan Singleton.
Investigators said tests later determined Clayton had a blood-alcohol level of 0.076 percent, which is just below 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving. Clayton was not charged with DUI.
But Hughes argued any level of alcohol can affect a driver’s perception and reaction.
Authorities also alleged that being in possession of and under the influence of any detectable amount of intoxicating beverage “would have placed him out of service,” under federal motor carrier regulations.
Clayton, according to court papers, told investigators he was working for a paving and asphalt company, that he was the foreman and that it was his job to drive the truck to a job site.
“Clayton stated he was not familiar with the road he was driving on when the crash occurred but stated it had a lot of curves,” Singleton alleged.
After a post-crash inspection of the truck, investigators concluded there were no mechanical problems or failures that could have contributed to the crash.
The owner of the dump truck, Patrick Hadley Doran, 24, of Gaithersburg, Md., also was charged in connection with the crash.
Doran, who also goes by the name Jacob Fury, was sentenced earlier this year to 3½ to 7 years in prison on the felony charge of homicide by vehicle, to which he pleaded guilty.
Doran admitted that he allowed the truck that he owned for his paving business to be operated on the roadway in violation of numerous requirements of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code. Prosecutors alleged the truck was not properly registered or titled, inspected or insured and should have never been on the roadway.
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