A truck driver from El Salvador charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for this week’s horrific, fiery head-on crash on Columbia’s I-70 has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
26-year-old Walter Montejo is also charged with felony second degree assault and with a misdemeanor count of driving while revoked. Court documents filed by Boone County prosecutors say he was driving a commercial semi-truck with a suspended license when the crash happened.
939 the Eagle News was at the Boone County Courthouse for Montejo’s Thursday arraignment, which was done via video from the Boone County jail. The truck driver wore a jail jumpsuit and spoke to the judge via an interpreter. Montejo, through his interpreter, tells Boone County Judge Kayla Inez Jackson-Williams that he’s confused by the charge of driving while revoked, saying he thought he had a license and that he also worked to get a social security number. Judge Jackson-Williams explained that these are the criminal charges and that Thursday’s hearing was an arraignment.
A court filing from Boone County prosecutors says Montejo is in the United States “temporarily on a work visa.”
The Columbia Police Department’s redacted two-page probable cause statement quotes witnesses driving behind the tractor trailer and a BMW before the crash as saying the Freightliner was in the passing lane and that the BMW was in the driving lane. Court documents quote drivers behind the crash as saying that the tractor trailer “entered the driving lane and struck the BMW” and that the Freightliner was traveling at a high rate of speed prior to the crash.
CPD investigators say the two victims who died were in the U-haul rental truck. Columbia Police say the U-haul driver, 54-year-old Cindy Helms of Tennessee, was pronounced dead at a local hospital. CPD identifies the U-haul passenger who was killed as 84-year-old Melvina Colin of Colorado, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Judge Jackson-Williams says Montejo’s next court appearance will be a bond hearing on Monday at 1 pm.
