NEWARK, Ohio — The truck driver who caused a chain-response crash on a bus that killed three people in an Ohio High School band was convicted of vehicle murder on Friday, but received more serious charges.
The three students who died in the crash in 2023 were on a charter bus, and the teacher from another vehicle that hit a tractor trailer and two chaperones were also killed.
Licking County Judge David Branstool found Jacob McDonald of Zanesville and found him guilty of counting six misdemeanors of vehicle murder but found him not a felony of aggravated vehicle murder.
The judge said McDonald’s actions in causing the crash were not negligent, but not reckless. McDonald may have faced 30 years in prison if convicted of all the more serious charges, but instead he is now facing a maximum sentence of 18 months.
Some of the victim’s family members left the court before the judge finished publishing the verdict.
Prosecutors said McDonald was speeding and he was watching the phone and could not put the brakes on to slow traffic on Interstate 70.
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His defense attorney, Chris Brigdon, said the cell data cited by investigators did not clearly indicate what was happening before the crash was over. Brigdon said the verdict was announced after it was announced that McDonald was still devastated by the crash, as he knows he caused it.
Investigators said McDonald’s truck pounded an SUV and thrust it into a bus that was carrying students from the Tuscarawas Valley Regional School District in eastern Ohio. Some vehicles set fire to it.
Five vehicles were involved in a crash in Licking County, east of Columbus. The bus was transporting students to the Ohio State Board of Education Association meeting in Columbus.
