NEWPORT NEWS — The family of a woman who was killed in a crash on Interstate 64 in May were hoping the charges against the other driver would be upgraded to involuntary manslaughter.
Morgan Lynn Johnson’s family asserted that the misdemeanor reckless driving charge and other counts the man faced was inadequate in the fatal wreck.
But now, the reckless driving count is gone too.
At a hearing Tuesday, Newport News prosecutors dropped the charge in the Memorial Day weekend crash in which the 26-year-old Johnson was killed.
While prosecutors could show that Gregory T. Pugh Jr.’s Volvo struck Johnson’s pickup truck from behind, they said they could not prove that he was being reckless.
“I need to show that the driver did something other than driving,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Quwanisha Roman said.
That could include such things as drinking and driving, being distracted by texting, or speeding exceedingly. “An accident in itself is insufficient,” Roman said.
Pugh, 30, of Hampton, still faced misdemeanor charges of driving on a suspended license and failing to have car insurance. (His license had been suspended for failing to carry insurance).
At the hearing, Roman told Newport News General District Court Judge Michael Stein about Johnson’s death but also told him that prosecutors couldn’t prove the reckless driving count and couldn’t move forward.
Pugh was found guilty on the other two charges. Stein gave him 60 days in jail — all suspended — for the driving on a suspended license charge. He also ordered him to serve 25 hours of community service and pay a combined $391 in court costs and fees.
Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn met with Johnson’s family the day before the hearing, and told them the reckless driving charge could not go forward.
“When I talked to the family, apparently (Morgan Johnson) was on a really positive direction, and then all of a sudden it came to a screeching halt,” Gwynn said. “And when I talked to them, I could see and feel their pain, and my heart goes out to them.”
But when a charge isn’t “supported by the law and the evidence,” Gwynn said, it cannot proceed.
More than 30 of Johnson’s family and friends attended the hearing, many wearing shirts that said “Live Like Morgan” on the back.
Despite the advance warning, Johnson’s mother, Rose Johnson Paul, said the hearing was still difficult to process.
“I can’t think of a word for how unbelievable it is,” Paul said. “There’s not a strong enough word for it. Anger. Disbelief. She worked so hard for the life that she was making, and someone that wasn’t even supposed to be on the road takes it away.”
Paul said Pugh didn’t apologize at the hearing for the accident, and did not “acknowledge the death.”
Pugh could not immediately be reached Friday. But his attorney, Timothy Clancy, said he told the judge that Pugh felt bad about the fatal crash.
“I represented that certainly my client and his family had a great deal of remorse for what happened,” Clancy said.
Reckless driving is defined under law as driving a motor vehicle “so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person,” and Clancy said the prosecution was correct to drop the charge.
“To show reckless driving, you need to show gross negligence,” Clancy said. “And in this case, there was no such showing. You need more than simple inadvertence.”
Johnson, a Kecoughtan High School graduate, married her partner, Haley Crabtree Johnson, 24, in December, and the new couple hoped to soon start a family. They were planning an in vitro pregnancy in which Haley would carry the baby to term.
After several years living Blacksburg, the Hampton natives were moving back home to be closer to their families as they began their own.
While Haley landed a school teaching job in Williamsburg, Morgan got a welding job that included working on a race car at Langley Speedway. They were closing on a new home in Newport News.
“It felt like everything was just kind of falling into place, kind of perfectly,” Haley said.
They spent all day packing on May 26, returning with relatives in a four-vehicle caravan.
But at about 11 p.m. — only 20 minutes from home — Morgan’s 1998 Chevy Silverado pickup was struck from behind Pugh’s 2010 Volvo SUV on Interstate 64 near Fort Eustis, the State Police report said.
The Silverado veered to the right, struck a guardrail and flipped multiple times, landing on its roof. Though she was wearing a seat belt, Johnson died at the scene.
The State Police report into the May 26 crash estimates that Pugh was driving about 75 mph in a 65 mph zone, and that Johnson was driving 55 mph. “Ten miles over the speed limit is not gross negligence for reckless driving,” Clancy said.
But Paul said the State Police told the family that equipment troopers use to more accurately determine a vehicle speeds was not working the night of the crash.
And when troopers sought permission to shut down the interstate for a few hours the next day, Paul said, their request was denied.
Neither drugs nor alcohol were factors in the crash, the State Police crash report said. A trooper told Johnson’s family that there were no indicators at the scene — such as the odor of alcohol or slurred speech — to warrant a sobriety test.
Investigators were attempting to search Pugh’s phone for signs of usage at the time of the crash, but Paul said it was not clear if anything was found on it.
Gwynn said he’s trying to arranging a meeting between the Johnson family, State Police officials and himself to discuss the case.
“I think the family deserves a meeting, and they deserve to have their questions answered because somebody they care about died,” Gwynn said, adding that he also wants to learn more about the State Police investigatory process.
Because the State Police equipment to “precisely pinpoint” the vehicle speeds wasn’t working that night, Gwynn said, the prosecution was hampered from arguing about the speeds in court.
Apart from the criminal case, Morgan’s wife separately filed a $1 million civil lawsuit against Pugh this week, contending he operated his vehicle in a “grossly negligent, careless and reckless manner.”
Pugh was driving recklessly “by exceeding the safe speed, and failing to keep a proper lookout, by failing to maintain control of his vehicle, and by attempting to make aggressive maneuvers,” said the lawsuit, filed in Newport News Circuit Court by local attorneys Mike Ware and Ron Smith.
“Morgan Lynn Johnson’s vehicle was caused to lose control and become airborne, flip numerous times, and land upon the top of the vehicle, thereby causing Morgan Lynn Johnson to sustain mortal injuries,” the lawsuit maintains.
The lawsuit asks for $1 million, plus attorney fees.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, [email protected]
