Woman charged in connection with fatal I-229 wrong-way motorcycle crash
By Cameron Montemayor
A St. Joseph woman has been charged in connection with a fatal wrong-way crash that killed a motorcyclist on an Interstate 229 exit ramp in May.
Katherine Deweese has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for her role in a wrong-way collision that killed 33-year-old Ryan Coffman as he was exiting the double-decker bridge in the early morning hours of May 17.
On the morning of the crash, Coffman was heading north on the interstate for work Downtown when he left the interstate on his Harley Davidson motorcycle via the Edmond Street exit ramp around 5 a.m.
According to St. Joseph police, Coffman was struck midway through the exit ramp head-on by a Honda CRV going in the wrong direction and ejected from his motorcycle. Coffman was transported to Mosaic Life Care with life-threatening injuries and later pronounced dead, a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
According to a probable cause statement, an odor of an intoxicant was noticed coming from Deweese at the scene. A preliminary breath sample showed her blood alcohol was at 0.065%. Deweese refused to consent to a blood draw at the law enforcement center. A search warrant was requested and granted and blood was drawn at 7:36 a.m.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab returned the toxicology report showing Deweese’s reporting limit of ethanol was 0.010%. The statement also says that without being asked, Deweese said she was distracted because she was arguing with her passenger.
After the crash occurred, Deweese remained at the scene and was not taken into custody. At the time of the incident, police said there was no direct evidence showing the driver had to be arrested, as results from the driver’s blood test and the car’s event data recorder would be needed to determine appropriate charges.
“My brother was a good human being,” said Chandra Roberts, Coffman’s sister. “He was a taxpayer in Buchanan County. All of his adult life. He bought his house in the South End nine years ago. He owned that house.”
The filing of charges comes just over three months from when the crash occurred, and the weight of Coffman’s death has been immense for family and friends seeking justice.
“It means that his death was taken seriously and that’s all we wanted. He got plucked out of this life and can’t speak for himself, so for this to go to court is his way of having some kind of say,” Roberts said.
