Harrison Man Charged With Negligent Homicide After Pregnant Woman Loses Baby In U.S. 65 Crash

HARRISON, Ark. — A 22-year-old Boone County man is charged with negligent homicide after prosecutors say he drove drunk at 80 to 90 mph down U.S. Highway 65, crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a pickup carrying a pregnant woman who later lost the baby.

Lucas Gene Cash was arrested Sept. 22 on a bench warrant issued four days earlier, according to records filed Sept. 29 in Boone County Circuit Court. Cash was himself thrown from his burning truck in the Aug. 24 crash and flown to hospitals in Harrison and Springfield, Mo.

Cash is charged with negligent homicide, a Class B felony, and second-degree battery, a Class C felony. He also faces misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and disorderly conduct.

Under Arkansas law, the definition of “person” for homicide offenses includes an unborn child at any stage of development. Negligent homicide carries five to 20 years in prison.

The crash

Harrison police Detective Matt Odom came upon the wreck on U.S. 65 South near Salmon Lane about 7:51 p.m. Aug. 24, Patrolman Shawn McBee wrote in a probable cause affidavit. A pickup was on its side and fully engulfed in flames, a second vehicle was off the road, and Cash was lying unconscious in the roadway after being thrown from the burning truck.

A witness told police he had seen Cash’s blue 1994 Ford Ranger southbound near Roberta Street moments earlier, traveling 80 to 90 mph and “swerving excessively across all lanes of travel,” the affidavit states. The witness said he had to take evasive action to keep from being hit.

A 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche driven by Laydin Gibson was slowing in the northbound center turn lane to turn left onto Salmon Lane. Jadyn Campbell was in the front passenger seat and an infant was in a car seat in the back. Cash crossed into the opposing lanes, entered the turn lane at a high rate of speed and hit the Avalanche nearly head-on on the passenger side, according to the affidavit. The Ranger rolled onto its side and caught fire. The Avalanche spun off the road into the grass. A tire that came off the Ranger hit a third vehicle, causing minor damage.

Gibson suffered a cut to the back of his head and was treated at North Arkansas Regional Medical Center. Campbell was flown to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mo., with a broken right leg, a spinal fracture and other injuries that required an extended hospital stay, the affidavit states.

Campbell was seven weeks pregnant. McBee wrote that he followed up with the hospital Sept. 2 and confirmed she had suffered a miscarriage. Hospital records show she was monitored for a spontaneous miscarriage beginning Aug. 25, and on Aug. 29 medical staff determined the pregnancy was not viable and there was no treatment available. Medical personnel told police that multiple pelvic fractures and trauma near the pelvic ring “were consistent with and sufficient to cause the miscarriage,” according to the affidavit.

Minutes before

Officers traced Cash’s movements to the Phillips 66 at 524 U.S. 62/65 South. An employee told police that just before 7:50 p.m., Cash pulled into an unmarked parking space at a high rate of speed, stumbled out of his truck and urinated on the concrete in view of the employee, the employee’s girlfriend and a child, the affidavit states. The employee confronted Cash about being intoxicated. Cash got back in the truck and drove off southbound on U.S. 65, crashing minutes later.

Security video from the store “confirms Cash’s unsteadiness, public urination, and clear physical impairment,” McBee wrote. The public urination is the basis for the disorderly conduct charge.

Boone County sheriff’s Deputy David Everhart, who helped paramedics with Cash in the ambulance, reported “a strong, overwhelming odor of intoxicants” coming from him, according to the affidavit.

Cash was flown by Air Evac to North Arkansas Regional Medical Center and then to Cox South Hospital in Springfield, Mo. On Aug. 25, a judge in Greene County, Mo., signed a search warrant for Cash’s blood. It was drawn at the hospital with help from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory. The affidavit does not report a result.

Bond and court date

Cash appeared by video before Boone County District Judge Wes Bradford on Sept. 23. Bradford set bond at $100,000, cash or professional surety, and ordered Cash not to drive, not to drink or possess alcohol, and to have no contact with the immediate family of the alleged victims. The record of the hearing says Cash lives with his mother and is not employed.

He did not file an affidavit of indigency at the hearing, and no attorney is listed for him in the court file.

The information was signed Sept. 18 by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brad Brown for 14th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge. The case is assigned to Circuit Judge John Putman. Cash is scheduled to appear in circuit court Oct. 5 at 9:30 a.m.

Court records show Cash was booked into the Boone County jail in April on a misdemeanor charge of third-degree assault on a family or household member, and a petition for an order of protection was filed against him in Boone County Circuit Court later that month. A judge granted a temporary order April 27.

A criminal charge is an accusation. Cash is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.