Video footage of fatal crash that killed pregnant Lansdale woman played for jury

NORRISTOWN — Members of a Montgomery County jury appeared riveted as they watched 25 minutes of cellphone video depicting the driving habits of a man operating an 18,000-pound dump truck, leading up to a head-on collision that killed a pregnant Lansdale woman and her unborn child.

As video of the fatal impact, accompanied by sounds of crushing metal, was played on a large projection screen in the courtroom, relatives and friends of crash victim Kellie Adams wept and embraced each other, their grief permeating the courtroom.

Everett James Clayton, 57, of Charleston, W. Va., who is charged with third-degree murder, third-degree murder of an unborn child and homicide by vehicle in connection with the Aug. 25, 2022, fatal crash, appeared to carefully watch the video as well and bowed his head as it concluded.

County Detective David Schanes testified investigators recovered the video footage from Clayton who had been recording video on his cellphone, which was located on his vehicle’s dashboard, facing out the front windshield. Schanes explained the video showed Clayton traveling 13 miles through four jurisdictions on Aug. 25 including Upper Gwynedd, North Wales, Worcester and Lower Providence where his 2003 Ford F650 XLT Super Duty dump truck collided head-on with 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.

Clayton’s truck was traveling at an excessive speed through a curve in the roadway, was unable to maintain his lane of travel and crossed the double yellow line, entered the northbound lanes and struck Adams’ vehicle head-on, prosecutors alleged.

Adams, 31, who was eight months pregnant, died at the scene of the 2:59 p.m. crash and her child, Emersyn Grace Adams, was stillborn. 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.

First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. and co-prosecutor Gabrielle Hughes described the crash as “devastating,” adding Adams was so entrapped that rescuers had trouble finding her in her vehicle.

“I was amazed at the depth of the crush … there was a lot of impact force. It was kind of mind boggling to me. To me, it was amazing the force that it took to do that,” Dennis DeWane Sr.,  a mechanic with 50 years of experience who inspected the vehicles after the crash and offered an opinion that there were no mechanical failures with the dump truck that contributed to the crash.

Retired county Detective Robert Turner, a crash reconstruction expert, agreed with DeWane’s opinion.

“I’ve never seen this type of damage with a passenger car,” Turner told the jury of seven women and five men.

The video footage began 25 minutes and 27 seconds prior to the fatal crash. Prosecutors contend the footage showed Clayton, who told investigators he was working for a paving and asphalt company, speeding and having several near-miss incidents with other vehicles as he tried to keep up while following a company pickup truck to the next job site.

At about 10 minutes before the fatal crash, Clayton’s vehicle nearly struck a landscaping trailer that was stopped partially on the road in the 1800 block of Valley Forge Road in Worcester and Clayton traveled into the oncoming lane of traffic, almost striking two oncoming cars, which had to swerve to get out of his way, authorities alleged.

Prosecutors wrapped up their case late Tuesday with solemn testimony from Adams’ husband, Jason, an Upper Providence firefighter, who recalled his department was dispatched to the crash site and upon arrival he observed his wife’s vehicle. Jason Adams recalled observing his fellow firefighters “drop to their knees” and cry and his learning that his wife and daughter were killed.

Tears welled in the eyes of several jurors during the emotional testimony and others in the courtroom gallery, including Kellie Adams’ parents, Dean and Cindy Miller, wept.

Clayton did not testify during the trial. Defense lawyers James P. Lyons and Benjamin Cooper did not call any witnesses.

The jury will hear closing arguments from the lawyers on Wednesday morning and begin deliberations after receiving legal instructions from presiding Judge William R. Carpenter.

Hughes and McCann, who alleged Clayton was unlicensed, speeding, driving recklessly and with alcohol in his system, are seeking a conviction of third-degree murder, which requires a finding of malice, or that an offender acted with an extreme indifference to the value of human life. A conviction of third-degree murder carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.

Lyons and Cooper conceded that Clayton committed homicide by vehicle but they have argued Clayton’s conduct did not rise to murder.

Lyons suggested the only factor that played a role in the crash was Clayton’s speed. 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.

Lyons argued prosecutors do not have sufficient evidence to prove malice.

During an interview by police, Clayton allegedly 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 is not charged with DUI.

But Hughes argued any level of alcohol can affect a driver’s perception and reaction.

“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.

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.