Truck Driver Found Guilty in Fatal Crash that Killed Pregnant Lansdale Woman

Tony Di Domizio | North Penn Now•

Everett James Clayton, 57, of West Virginia.

A West Virginia man has been found guilty of third-degree murder and related offense stemming from an August 2022 fatal crash in Lower Providence that killed a pregnant Lansdale woman and her unborn child.

Everett James Clayton, 57, of Charleston, was convicted by a jury on Wednesday after three hours of deliberation on charges of third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child in connection with the fatal two-vehicle crash on the afternoon of Aug. 25, 2022 in Lower Providence that claimed the lives of Kellie Adams, 31, and her unborn daughter, Emersyn Grace Adams, according to The Reporter.

Adams was a 2009 North Penn High School graduate and mother of two boys.

According to the report, Clayton faces a maximum of 20 to 40 years in prison on each third-degree murder charge and will be sentenced later this year.

Dump truck driver Everett Clayton declines to comment after #MontcoPa jury convicted him of third-degree murder in crash deaths of Kellie Adams, who was 8 months pregnant, & her unborn child. Clayton, 57, will be sentenced later this year pic.twitter.com/n6N7I5F2I2
— Carl Hessler Jr. (@MontcoCourtNews) October 25, 2023

Adams’ husband Jason told reporters that the verdict came on what he believed would have been Emersyn’s first birthday. Family who attended the verdict, including Adams’ parents Dean — a former Lansdale Police sergeant and former Towamencin Fire Chief — and Cindy Miller, and sisters Stephanie and Jaclyn Miller, said they felt Kellie’s spirit in the courtroom over the course of the trial.

"They’re both here. There’s a significance behind that. Today would have been Emersyn’s first birthday. I think that’s important… because while she never got a chance to breathe this air, she will live on and there will be positive things to come,” Jason Adams told The Reporter. "Nothing is going to bring them back however, the appropriate level of justice for Kellie and Emersyn we feel was served today.”

Dean thanked everyone for their support.

"Everybody has just done more than we could have ever anticipated and we have the outcome we desired to get, justice for Kellie and Emersyn,” he told The Reporter.

Prosecutors argued Clayton had alcohol in his system, was driving recklessly, and was unlicensed and speeding when he crashed head-on into Adams’ SUV. A prosecution of third-degree murder means Clayton acted with extreme indifference to the value of human life, per reports.

"I think the evidence showed that he drove an 18,000-pound truck like it was a sports car through multiple communities in Montgomery County. His driving was reckless,” First District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr., who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Gabrielle Hughes, said about Clayton.

Read more on the trial here.

The owner of the dump truck that Clayton was driving was sentenced earlier this year to 3 ½ to 7 years in prison on a felony charge of homicide by vehicle. Patrick Doran, 24, an Irish national of Gaithersburg, Md., aka Jacob Fury, pleaded guilty in June.

First responders were dispatched to the scene for a report of a two-vehicle crash. Arriving police found a head-on crash had occurred between a 2021 Chevy Tahoe, driven by Adams, and a 2003 Ford F650 XLT Super Duty dump truck, driven by Clayton.

Clayton, who was uninjured, allegedly confessed he had been drinking beers, and blood testing later showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .076% — just under the legal limit of .08%, investigators said.

According to the criminal complaint, crash scene investigators determined Clayton was traveling in excess of the speed limit as he approached a curve in the road, causing him to lose control and cross over the double-yellow lines. The dump truck collided with the Tahoe with such force that the Tahoe lost all forward momentum and the dump-body portion of the truck detached and fell off, police said.

Clayton was initially charged in October 2022 with homicide by vehicle along with additional charges of careless driving/unintentional death, reckless driving, driving at unsafe speed and related offenses. However, the charges were upgraded to third-degree murder of Adams and third-degree murder of an unborn child after investigators alleged that Clayton "exhibited sustained recklessness over a period of time leading up to the fatal crash,” which meets the standards for third-degree murder charges.

Investigators said Doran had purchased the vehicle on July 6, 2022, under a fake name and never had the vehicle registered, inspected, or insured as required by state law. Additionally, the truck was being operated by "Stellar Paving and Drainage” with a listed address as 1960 Butler Pike in Conshohocken, which turned out to be a PO Box at a UPS store that was also rented by Doran under the same fake name, according to charging documents.