XENIA — The man involved in a crash that killed a newborn and injured six others in Greene County has pleaded guilty to charges.
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: I-Team: Family of newborn killed in I-675 crash questions why it took 8 months to charge suspect
Samuel Lawson, 33, was in court Tuesday morning for a plea hearing in Greene County Common Pleas Court. News Center 7′s John Bedell was in court as Lawson pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated vehicular homicide, three counts of aggravated vehicular assault, and one count of OVI.
As part of a plea agreement, additional counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular assault, and OVI were dismissed.
Today’s guilty plea comes less than a week before Lawson was scheduled to go to trial. He will now be sentenced on Dec. 1.
Lawson was previously accused of causing a three-vehicle crash in an active construction zone on Interstate 675 in Sugarcreek Township in May 2021. As News Center 7 previously reported, his blood-alcohol level was four times the legal limit when he crashed his SUV into a minivan.
The collision sent the minivan into another car on the highway, according to a crash report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Faye White, a 4-week-old passenger of the minivan, died from injuries sustained in the crash.
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Faye was in the minivan with her family. News Center 7′s I-Team previously spoke to her parents, Dylan and Kristen White, in November 2021. They said May 23, the day of the crash, was their wedding anniversary and they were on I-675 heading home after picking up their children from their parents’ house.
Dylan and three of the couple’s kids were transported to the hospital. Their daughter Emma, who was 10 years old at the time, was partially internally decapitated and went into cardiac arrest, among other severe injuries. Her mother said she beat the odds and survived.
News Center 7 spoke to the family again this past January and learned Emma goes to physical therapy every week.
