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COCAINE INVOLVED IN ACCIDENT THAT KILLED 5

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 9:55 AM CDT

A Mississippi truck driver accused in the deaths of five members of a Monticello family told investigators he had used crack cocaine within six hours of the accident happened Saturday.

During a Jefferson County Circuit Court hearing Monday, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Hunter said Roy Lee Jordan also admitted to state police investigator Kenneth Whitmore that he had falsified log books and did not get a proper amount of rest before the accident.

The crash killed LaKetria Wells, 27, and her four children, LaKiyah Wells, 7; Kaleb Jarrell Stokes, 5; Keyshon Wells, 4; and LaKayla Wells, 2, on Saturday at 12:14 p.m.

Judge Jodi Dennis ruled prosecutors had sufficient probable cause to hold Jordan, 57, of Benton, Miss., for five counts of negligent homicide, a Class C felony and, following the prosecutor’s request, set a $100,000 bond for Jordan.

The five deaths raise to seven the number of vehicular homicides in the county this year.

Hunter said LaKetria Wells, who was a guard for the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Cummins Unit, was southbound on U.S. 425, four miles south of Pine Bluff, with her four children when the northbound tractor-trailer truck driven by Jordan crossed the center line and struck Wells’ car head-on.

“All five people were pronounced dead at the scene,” Hunter said, adding that results from blood and urine samples taken from Jordan and sent to the state Crime Laboratory at Little Rock were not immediately available.

Trooper Oscar Bullard Jr., who investigated the accident, said neither driver was speeding, the weather was clear and the roadway dry.

Reading from the affidavit from Whitmore, Hunter said Arkansas Highway Police searched the truck and found drug paraphernalia, which Whitmore identified as a crack pipe.

Jordan was quoted by Whitmore as saying he had been stopped for speeding at Hamburg at about 8 a.m. Saturday and was enroute from Mississippi to El Dorado to pick up a load when the accident occurred.

“U.S. 425 is many miles away from El Dorado, and Jordan told Whitmore he wasn’t sure why he was on 425 or in Jefferson County,” Hunter said.

A witness told investigators that about an hour before the crash the truck was parked on the side of the highway and Jordan was slumped over the steering wheel, apparently asleep. Another witness told police that shortly before the crash, the truck driver appeared to be struggling to stay awake and was lurching across lanes on the four-lane but undivided highway.

Jordan was driving for 3J Trucking Co. Inc. Jimmy Boatner, owner of the Vaughan, Miss., trucking firm, said the company checked Jordan’s background before he was hired three months ago and found Jordan had a clean driving record. Boatner said Jordan was transporting boxes of dry ice when the accident occurred.

Boatner said the crash was the only major accident by a company driver in the company’s six years of operation.

In court Monday, Hunter said Jordan “had no prior felony record that we know of and his driving record was not bad.”

Questioned by Dennis about his income, Jordan said he received a check July 7 for $900, lived with his elderly parents and supported only himself and his 22-year-old daughter.

“She’s old enough to support herself, and you do not qualify for the public defender,” the judge said. “You will need to make arrangements to hire an attorney to represent you.”

Jordan was ordered to return to court July 30 and report on his success in hiring a lawyer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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