MARION COUNTY, OR – A Marion County jury found the defendant, California resident Lincoln Smith (54 years), guilty of seven counts of Manslaughter in the Second Degree for recklessly causing the deaths of seven people, and guilty of three counts of Assault in the Third Degree for recklessly causing serious physical injury to three other people, resulting from a crash he caused on I-5 on May 18, 2023.
The jury also returned a guilty verdict on one count of Reckless Driving and a not guilty verdict on one count of Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants.
The defendant was driving a semitruck on I-5 north of Albany and south of Salem when he went off the road and crashed into a passenger van and another semitruck that were parked along the shoulder of the highway. The passenger van contained 10 people at the time of the crash who were returning home from work and an additional person was outside of the vehicle at the time of the collision…