Fatal accident case ends with obstruction plea

SPENCER -- A 40-year-old former Poland man appeared in the Owen Circuit Court Wednesday afternoon, pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in a fatal 2011 hit-and-run case.

William Tracy Lucas, 40, now of Connecticut, pled guilty to the Class D felony, pursuant to a plea agreement. He was sentenced to three years in the Department of Correction with two years executed and one year suspended to probation.

The charge stems from an investigation conducted by the Owen County Prosecutor's Office and the Owen Sheriff's Department in the aftermath of the Jan. 22, 2011 hit-and-run death of a 12-year-old Cloverdale Middle School student.

The youngster, William "Billy" Bottoms, was fatally injured as he and a friend were on their way home about 9:30 p.m., walking along State Road 42 following a dance at the Cunot Community Center.

As noted during testimony at the hearing, Lucas and his now-estranged wife, Tabitha, were en route to their rural Poland residence late that evening, driving on State Road 42, just west of the Cunot Center, when their car, driven by his wife, struck the sixth-grader.

After the two realized their car had struck and injured Billy, they got back in the vehicle and continued to their residence, Owen County Prosecutor Don VanDerMoere noted.

In the days following the incident, Lucas and others attempted to repair the damage to the family's car -- in particular the windshield and hood -- in an effort to conceal evidence of the fatal accident.

In the meantime, young Billy succumbed to his injuries the following day at Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis.

After being formally charged on Feb. 10, 2011, Lucas bonded out of jail and left Indiana with court permission to pursue work in Kentucky.

Despite being ordered to appear for future hearings, he failed to return to Owen County to face trial. A warrant was issued for his arrest in March 2013.

After an extensive search to locate Lucas by the Owen Prosecutor's Office, he was arrested and extradited back to Indiana from Connecticut in July 2015, noted VanDerMoere, a former Putnam County deputy prosecutor.

On Oct. 23, 2012, Tabitha Blake Lucas, then 29 and formerly of Greencastle, was sentenced to six years in prison with two years of initial executed time and four years suspended to probation.

"This has been an emotionally taxing case for all of the parties involved," the Owen County prosecutor said at the time, "especially the friends and family of Billy Bottoms.

"We hope that the resolution of this criminal case brings some measure of comfort to those who knew Billy."

In a change of plea hearing in May 2012, she pled guilty to a charge of failing to stop after an accident resulting in death (a Class C felony).

She testified she did not see Bottoms as he walked along the edge of the roadway wearing dark clothing. She said she realized she had hit something, and when she turned around and came back to discover a group of people standing over the injured boy, she reportedly panicked.

She reportedly left the scene, drove to her sister's home and told her she had struck a deer.