A Springfield man with a long history of DWI convictions admitted he was driving while intoxicated in an accident in which one of his passengers was killed on July 9, 2022.
At a hearing on April 26, Isaac Andrew Johnston, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of felony driving while intoxicated causing the death of another, one felony count of driving while intoxicated causing physical injury and one count of misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.
The passenger who died was Lana K. Reed, 51.
Johnston will be sentenced in June. He is in the Greene County jail.
The 2022 fatal accident occurred, according to Springfield police, at 11:34 on a Saturday night when Johnston was driving his 2000 Chevrolet Monte Carlo south on Grant Avenue. According to police, the car entered the center lane to pass a 2014 Nissan Altima.
The Monte Carlo then collided head-on with a northbound 2005 Volkswagen Touareg SUV.
The impact between the Monte Carlo and the Touareg caused both vehicles to spin, and the Monte Carlo then collided with the Nissan, which ran off the road.
Johnston and two of his passengers were taken by ambulance to a Springfield hospital, where Reed died.
Johnston was charged on Oct. 16, 2023, 15 months after the fatal accident, and exactly 12 months after another arrest for DWI.
Court documents show Johnston was arrested for DWI again on Oct. 16, 2022, three months after Reed was killed while he was at the wheel.
According to court documents from the Oct. 16, 2022 arrest, the officer wrote:
“A search of Johnston’s vehicle yielded an empty shot container of American Honey whiskey. Further search of the center console yielded three more shot containers with a small amount of liquid in each. In the passenger seat underneath a jacket, I seized a half empty bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey.
The report did not specify the size of the whiskey bottle.
“While en route to jail, Johnston became verbally violent, screaming at the top of his lungs. Johnston made spontaneous utterances of how he started speeding because I was following him, and he could ‘see my lights in the distance.'”
Johnston’s blood-alcohol-content was 0.18 percent, according to court documents.
The officer further wrote, “Prior to his arrest, Johnston was the driver in a motor vehicle crash that resulted in the death of a passenger in his car where impairment was suspected.”
Johnston has DWI convictions from 2002, 2003 and 2008.
