Woman Killed After Jan. 6 Defendant Drove Wrong Way in Drunken Suicide Attempt, Officials Say

A man from Illinois was found guilty of attacking a reporter and police at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 but was later pardoned by President Trump. He is now on trial for reportedly killing a woman while driving the wrong way down a highway while drunk and trying to kill himself.

Police say that 47-year-old Shane Jason Woods killed Lauren Wegner on Interstate 55 in Springfield in 2022. He is now being charged with murder. A report from the courtroom in the Chicago Sun-Times says that on Tuesday, the first day of the trial, prosecutors gave opening comments and called 17.

It was November 8, 2022, and Woods was leaving a local bar where he had been drinking. He was going to face almost a decade in jail for his crimes on January 6, 2022. It was said that when Woods was pulled over for speeding, the suspect told the officer that he wanted to “end it.”

The cop said Woods told him, “It takes a big f—ing man to say what I’m about to say.” “I’m going to kill myself”

An ex-cop whose cousin was dating Woods at the time also saw him and stopped. On dashcam video, he was heard telling another cop that Woods was “part of that Capitol deal.”

But Woods sped north down the southbound lanes of I-55 to get away from the police. Wegner was going south on the highway at the time of the accident and hit Woods’ pickup truck head-on. Authorities say that when the two objects hit each other, a fiery ball erupted and killed Wegner quickly while breaking almost all of her bones. Investigators had to use her nail paint to figure out who she was.

As part of his opening statement, prosecutor Derek Dion is said to have said, “Lauren died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” It was impossible for her to move.

From what the police report says, Woods’ blood alcohol level was.177 after the accident, which is more than twice the Illinois legal limit.

Journalists also heard from a woman who was in a different car during the crash and was hit in the eye by breaking glass. She said it was the worst pain she had ever felt.

Prosecutors say Woods knew there was a “strong probability” that what he did could hurt or kill someone, which is why he was charged with murder. According to the Sun-Times, Woods’s lawyers said that the first charge against him was careless homicide, not murder.

It is said that Woods will speak in his own defense.

A trooper from the Illinois State Police wrote the probable cause report for Woods’ arrest. In it, the trooper said that while standing in the doorway to Woods’ room at the hospital where he was taken after the crash, he overheard a conversation between Woods and a visitor.

“Nurses asked the visitors to leave, but while I was standing in the doorway of the treatment room, I overheard Woods talking to a visitor who was a white middle-aged woman with blonde hair,” the trooper’s statement said. “While we were talking, I heard Woods say that he planned to crash his car into a truck tractor semi-trailer.”

After Woods was given his Miranda rights, the state trooper said, “he refused to answer questions.” However, “neighbors later told him that an open 12-ounce Bud Light can had been found with the property that had been in Woods’ vehicle at the crash scene.”

The court records showed that he was facing six charges, such as first-degree murder, aggravated driving while impaired, and aggravated fleeing and escaping a peace officer.

The trooper guessed what Woods might have been thinking before the deadly crash.

In the process of the investigation, I learned that Woods was a defendant in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol Riots and was waiting for his sentence, which could have been a reason for the planned car accident, the trooper wrote.

In fact, Woods pleaded guilty in September 2022 to felony charges of assaulting a police officer and a member of the media during the attack on January 6, when Trump fans, mad that Vice President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, rushed the police and broke into the building. Congress had to stop certifying the Electoral College vote while lawmakers and staff either ran away or hid in place.

In his guilty plea, Woods said that he had physically blocked a Capitol Police officer who had been sprayed with a chemical allergen during the fight and was after the person who had done it.

At that moment, Woods dropped his shoulder and rammed into her, throwing her off her feet and into a downed bicycle barricade, the Justice Department said in a press release about Woods’ guilty plea. “She was in pain right away, and the next day she felt like she had been hit by a truck.”

The first attack took place around 2:10 p.m. that day. After a few hours, Woods went on the attack again after joining a group of attackers who were breaking up media equipment.

The DOJ press statement said, “He threw some of it himself.” “At the same time, a news photographer tried to leave to protect himself and his camera.” Woods ran at the man and hit him with a blindside shoulder tackle, which knocked him down and made him drop the camera.

Four and a half years, or 54 months, was Woods‘ prison term in October 2023.

Trump commuted the sentences of all Jan. 6 prisoners soon after taking office in January, which meant that they were no longer guilty.

Call or text 988 to get in touch with the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline if you are having suicidal ideas.

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