A Marion County judge has denied a motion to suppress evidence that the truck driver accused of killing seven farmworkers in an Interstate 5 crash last year had used and possessed illicit drugs at the time of the collision, court records show.
Police accuse the semitruck driver, 53-year-old Lincoln Smith, of having cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system when he allegedly crashed into a parked passenger van on the shoulder of northbound I-5 near the Santiam Rest Area on May 18, 2023. Eleven people were in the van, which transported farmworkers between job sites and home. Only four survived.
Court records filed late last year show that police interviewed Smith at the scene of the crash and later at Salem Hospital, where medical staff gave him morphine for his injuries.
Police and prosecutors argue that an officer read Smith his Miranda rights at the crash scene and that Smith was aware of his right to remain silent. But Smith’s attorney said her client, who thought he had broken his ribs, was not in a condition to be interviewed or to consent to a search of his belongings, calling his statements to police an illegal interrogation.
During questioning in the hospital, police searched Smith’s clothes and discovered a small metal “bullet” dispenser that contained meth, court records said. Police asked Smith what the container was, but he at first declined to answer, court records said.
Smith later told police that he used the drug when he was tired, according to court records.
Smith’s attorney, Tiffany Humphrey, asked that evidence of her client’s alleged drug use be suppressed because Smith was compelled to talk to officers under a “police-dominated” environment for a prolonged period of time at the side of the road and the hospital.
She also said officers should have read him his Miranda rights a second time when he was interviewed in the hospital. Even so, Smith was in pain and under the influence of morphine, so he was not fit to understand his rights, she argued.
Humphrey added that Smith was devastated by the workers’ deaths and that “he could not think in a linear manner hearing all this news.”
Prosecutors argued that Smith was not in so much pain — or so intoxicated — that he couldn’t understand what was happening. They said Smith was coherent and made it clear he understood his rights.
Marion County Circuit Judge Daniel Wren sided with the prosecution and on Feb. 15 denied the motion to suppress the evidence.
Humphrey declined to comment.
Smith’s next court date is March 5, according to court records. He faces seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and a charge of driving under the influence of intoxicants.
