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Williams enters guilty plea to vehicular homicide
A Cocke County man who was intoxicated when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 40 and was involved in a fatal crash in 2012, Wednesday pleaded guilty to the resulting charges. Dan Williams, 40, Lower Bogard Road, Cosby, was traveling westbound in the eastbound "fast" lane of the interstate on December 1, 2012, when his 2007 Mercury Mountaineer hit a 2006 Dodge van head-on. The operator of the Dodge van, Kristy Lynn Jones, 35, Toledo, Ohio, died in the 5:13am collision,and four passengers in her auto were injured when she was hit head-on, two miles east of Newport. "An off-duty North Carolina officer was westbound and saw the Williams vehicle in the eastbound lane. He flashed his lights and honked his horn trying to get the attention of the driver but he was unable to do so, " Trooper Tyler Hall said. Several eastbound autos reportedly did dodge the oncoming SUV, but the collision with the van occurred at the crest of a hill near the 437 mile marker. Trooper Hall said there was no evidence that either vehicle braked before impact. Two occupants in the Jones van were critically injured and two children sustained minor injuries. The occupants of the Jones vehicle were headed to South Carolina where they were to meet a grandfather and then travel on to Disney World in Florida. The officer said there was evidence of impairment on the part of Williams, and marijuana was found in his vehicle. Williams who appeared in Cocke County Circuit Court using a cane as the result of injuries he sustained in the crash, pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular homicide, two counts aggravated assault, two counts vehicular assault and DUI. He faces a term of eight to ten years on the homicide charges and two to three years on the other offenses when he is sentenced by Judge Ben Hooper at a later date. Defense Attorney Bill Leibrock told the court he will be filing a motion asking for alternative sentencing for his client.
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