LICKING COUNTY, Ohio — A truck driver convicted in the deadly bus crash on Interstate 70 in 2023 was released from jail on Saturday.
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Jacob McDonald was found guilty on six misdemeanor counts of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 18 months in prison, our news partners WBNS-10 TV reported.
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The charges stem from a November 2023 crash that involved five vehicles, including a Pioneer Trails charter bus carrying students and chaperones from Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools.
Preliminary findings from the NTSB found that McDonald did not slow down for the traffic that was slowed due to an earlier crash.
The crash killed three students: John W. Mosely, 18, Jeffery D. Worrell, 18, and Katelyn N. Owens, 15.
As well as three adults — teacher David Kennat and chaperones Kristy Gaynor and Shannon Wigfield.
McDonald was found not guilty of more than a dozen felony charges, including aggravated vehicular homicide, after a Licking County judge ruled that McDonald’s actions in causing the crash were negligent but not reckless, WBNS-10 TV reported.
However, McDonald had received a credit of 323 days for his sentence, meaning he would have been released roughly seven months after the sentencing on June 30, 2025, WBNS-10 TV reported.
The judge also ordered that McDonald’s license be suspended for five years.
He could have faced three decades in prison if he had been convicted on all of the more serious charges, WBNS-10 TV reported.
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