Fate of trucker who killed 7 Marion County farmworkers lies with jurors

Lincoln C. Smith was “coming down” from the effects of cocaine and meth when he fell asleep at the wheel of his semi truck and crashed into a van on the shoulder of Interstate 5 near Salem, killing seven farmworkers, Marion County prosecutors argued in court on Tuesday.

They described Smith, 54, of Sacramento, as an experienced truck driver who knew but ignored the risks of driving while impaired and tired.

But attorneys representing Smith argued he had sobered up from the drugs he did the night before by the time he crashed on the afternoon of May 18, 2023. They said he tried pulling into two truck stops that were full and was planning to exit at the next rest stop when he fell asleep. 

“There is no doubt that this was a tragedy. It was a tragedy for everyone involved,” said attorney Tiffany Humphrey, who is representing Smith. “Not all tragedies are criminal. Sometimes tragedies are non-criminal accidents, like this one.”

After closing arguments on Tuesday in Smith’s criminal trial, jurors filed into their deliberation room in the Marion County Courthouse around noon on Tuesday to decide his fate. Court records indicated they had not reached a verdict as of 5 p.m.

They listened to five days of testimony by witnesses including police officers, surviving victims and Smith himself.

Marion County Deputy District Attorney David R. Wilson said three of the surviving passengers in the van continue to suffer from serious injuries 20 months after the crash.

Jose E. Solis Flores’ mouth was injured so severely that he is unable to bite into an apple. Maria Flores-Martinez could not climb the steps to the witness stand to testify during the trial due to her injuries and needed to sit on a chair on the floor. Ibis Torres-Rangel cannot lift things the way he could before the crash and is still undergoing physical therapy, according to Wilson.

Smith faces seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and three counts of third-degree assault. He is also charged with reckless driving and driving while under the influence of intoxicants.

Jurors will decide whether the drugs Smith did were still affecting him at the time of the crash, or whether he consciously disregarded the risk of his driving conduct. 

If jurors find Smith not guilty of manslaughter, they will then decide whether to convict him of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, which would mean that he failed to be aware of the risk he posed on the road.

Either conviction under state law would require jurors to find that Smith showed “a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.”

Chaos on the freeway

On Monday, Smith took the stand as the final witness in his trial.

He testified that the day before the crash, he picked up a truck in Woodland, California, and headed north on I-5 between 4 and 5 a.m., picking up two hitchhikers on the way. 

He parked for the night around 8 p.m. in the small southern Oregon town of Sutherlin, north of Roseburg. 

“I’m not proud of it, but we smoked some meth,” Smith testified. He said they also snorted “a couple lines” of cocaine before parting ways. 

Smith said he has used drugs “socially” on and off since age 12.

That night, he walked his dog and ate before turning on a movie and going to sleep.

Smith got back on the road the next morning shortly before 7 a.m. and made several stops in the Eugene area, including at an auto parts store. The owner testified during the trial that Smith did not appear to be on drugs.

After eating lunch, Smith said he continued driving up the freeway when he realized he felt too tired to continue and was having trouble staying within a lane. He contacted his boss, who said he wanted him to continue making scheduled stops, but Smith told him he needed to be done for the day.

Smith said he was trained to pay attention to what’s ahead on the road and expect the unexpected. He’s learned to recognize early when he feels tired and not keep driving.

At the same time, he said, he’s expected to complete his scheduled stops. “It’s kind of a tough balance,” he said.

He said he tries to stay awake by talking on the phone with relatives, listening to talk radio and slapping “my face around a bit.”

Smith tried stopping at two truck stops but both were full. 

He said he couldn’t park a semi truck with a 53-foot trailer on the side of the freeway or at a store for hours on end. 

A home health nurse was driving from a client’s house when she saw Smith’s semi truck swerve to the side of the road, over-correct into the left lane and nearly hit a Jeep in the left lane between Salem and Albany, Marion County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Spooner said earlier in the trial.

The nurse then watched the truck go off the road again and continue driving.

Smith testified that he heard her honk and that other drivers were “irritated” because he was swerving into their lane. Knowing a rest area was close by, he switched lanes to exit around 2 p.m. to the Santiam River Rest Area, west of Jefferson.

“I guess I relaxed a little bit,” he said. “The next thing I remember was just three really violent collisions.”

Eleven farmworkers had worked on a farm that day and were heading in a van to homes in the Salem and Woodburn area when the driver, Adan Garcia-Garcia, pulled to the side of the interstate. 

He got out to check on a trailer attached to the back of the van when he saw a semi truck coming toward them on the side of the road. As he ran out of the way, the truck plowed into the van, crumpling it into another semi truck.

His brother, Josue Garcia-Garcia, 30, of Salem, and his nephew, Luis E. Gomez-Reyes, 30, of Woodburn, were among the passengers killed in the crash.

Smith was not seriously injured in the crash.

He testified that he checked his surroundings and didn’t know what had happened.

The first thing he saw when he got out of the truck was “two gentlemen laying down,” not moving, he said. He went up to them, asked if they were okay and tried to check their pulse.

Smith heard someone tell him that the men were dead. “Don’t worry about it, there’s nothing you can do,” the person said.

Smith said he “had no idea the magnitude of what had happened.” 

“It was like a war zone,” he said. “It was chaos.”

Humphrey asked him in court how he felt about the deadly crash. “I feel very devastated,” Smith  said, sniffling and wiping his nose.

Police found over 16 grams of meth in Smith’s truck along with part of a used pipe. 

They also found bags of syringes, most of which were unused. Smith testified that he had bought them online and planned to drop them off to someone in Oregon.

When Wilson pointed out that some of the syringes appeared to be used, Smith said they were “from a while back that I used, I guess.”

Humphrey asked if he was impaired while driving. “No, I wasn’t,” Smith replied.

Closing arguments

Wilson said in court on Tuesday that Smith was driving around 65 miles per hour when he crashed into the van.

The prosecutor said Smith had been driving trucks for 17 years, obtained a special license to do so and attended quarterly safety meetings.

Between Eugene, where Smith started feeling tired, and the crash scene, Wilson said there were six truck stops, 14 exits and two rest areas where Smith could have pulled over.

“Knowing the dangers of driving while fatigued, he chooses to continue driving,” Wilson said. “He knows how he experiences drugs, but the night before he decides to party.”

Wilson said Smith “didn’t even have to call it a day” and could have stopped somewhere to take a nap.

Witnesses described Smith as sweating profusely, appearing dizzy and confused, and said his pupils were constricted. They also said he was unable to remember his phone number.

But Humphrey said those are typical signs of shock from being involved in a crash, not impairment. 

Regarding the sweating, she said Smith was bald, overweight and wearing black in temperatures over 80 degrees. She also said his pupils were constricted because it was a bright, sunny day.

Humphrey also said Smith’s phone number was new and that he rarely gave it out to people, which made it difficult to remember. She noted that Smith was able to remember his girlfriend’s phone number and his own address without hesitation.

Humphrey said prosecutors relied primarily on two witnesses to argue that Smith was impaired. 

She said one of the witnesses had no credentials to determine that and the other, a state police sergeant, testified that it can be hard to tell the difference between symptoms of impairment and shock.

“He’s human, which caused him to look through a lens. He had tunnel vision,” she said of the officer, adding that he had been thrust into “the worst scene he could’ve been in.”

A paramedic testified that Smith’s demeanor was consistent with someone who had been involved in a crash.

Humphrey said there was no doubt that the case was emotional but that jurors must not allow personal feelings, sympathy or bias to influence their decision-making. She asked that they find Smith not guilty on all counts but said if they did not “completely agree,” she asked them to find him guilty of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.

Wilson questioned her use of the term “accident,” saying that would mean the crash was out of Smith’s control.

“That’s not what this case is about,” he said. “Control is the key here, and the defendant had control over everything in this case. That’s what recklessness is about. It’s about the control that he had and the choices that he made.”

Wilson urged jurors to “look at the whole picture.” Smith fell asleep after working for just six hours because he was “coming down” from using meth, he said. “He’s crashing is what he’s doing, both literally and figuratively.”

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly described the farm where the farmworkers had worked on the day of the crash. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.

RELATED COVERAGE:

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UPDATE: Police say semitruck driver plowed into van on I-5, killing 7

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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