ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — The man charged in a Valentine’s Day crash that killed two mothers and their two daughters pleaded guilty Monday afternoon.
Elijah Henderson entered a guilty plea to four counts of involuntary manslaughter during the hearing rather than taking the case to trial. The judge then sentenced Henderson to 10 years in prison for each count, with the sentences running concurrently. Prosecutors were asking for a sentence of 10 years.
Henderson was facing four counts of driving while intoxicated for the crash that happened on Feb. 14, 2020 along Interstate 64 and Missouri 364 in Lake St. Louis.
Lesley and Rhyan Prather and Carrie and Kacey McCaw were killed in the crash. The mother and daughter pairs from Louisville, Kentucky were on their way to a volleyball tournament in Kansas City when the crash happened. The women were both 44 years old. The girls were 12.
Investigators said Henderson had marijuana in his system when he lost control of his vehicle and struck the victims, but on Monday, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar said the THC in Henderson's system was not a root cause for the crash.
In court, Henderson said, “I was driving and I made the mistake of trying to reach over and roll up the passenger window and lost control of the vehicle.”
Lohmar said Henderson acted recklessly by rolling down the window. He said a crash reconstructionist found that by rolling down the passenger window, Henderson's head would have dropped below the dashboard.
"We have no, no question in our mind that nobody intended for this to happen, certainly not Mr. Henderson," Lohmar said Monday. "The problem is that the car law calls for when certain contact rises to the level of recklessness, there has to be some consequence."
The victims' families were in the court over video call as their impact statements were read for the court.
"You try in this job to separate yourself from the personalities or the souls behind the victims but sometimes you can't," Lohmar said. "Sometimes it is tough. Those lines get blurred. Today was one of those days."