A St. Louis grand jury has indicted 65-year-old Joseph Clayton of Indiana on charges tied to a drunken-driving crash that killed 24-year-old Raven McCline as she stopped to help a stranded motorist on Interstate 70 back in April. The indictment, handed up Thursday, formalizes felony charges nearly five months after the fatal early-morning collision.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Clayton is accused of driving drunk and fatally striking McCline, a Belleville woman, while she was assisting the driver of a crashed SUV. The Post-Dispatch’s Katie Kull, a public safety reporter, wrote that the grand jury’s indictment names Clayton in connection with the April crash.
The crash unfolded around 1:15 a.m. on Friday, April 3, on eastbound I-70 near Union Boulevard, after a Ford Explorer went off the rain-slicked highway. McCline walked toward the disabled vehicle to help before she was struck, according to KSDK-TV, which reported that Clayton was driving a Chevrolet Silverado at the time. The crash happened during rainy conditions, the outlet noted, as McCline had pulled over safely before being hit.
Highway Shut Down for Hours as Investigators Worked the Scene
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department accident reconstruction investigators closed all eastbound lanes of I-70 for roughly four hours following the crash, with the highway not fully reopening until around 5:20 a.m., the station’s report said. The extended closure reflects the scale of the response required to map a fatal crash scene on one of the region’s busiest corridors.
Felony Charges Carry Years in Prison Under Missouri Law
Under Missouri Revised Statute ยง 565.024, operating a vehicle while intoxicated and causing the death of someone who is not a passenger constitutes first-degree involuntary manslaughter, a Class B felony, according to Missouri’s state statutes. Class B felonies in Missouri carry prison terms ranging from five to fifteen years with mandatory minimum service requirements. It remains unclear from available records whether Clayton’s blood alcohol level at the scene or the exact number of felony counts he faces have been publicly detailed…