Dump truck driver who killed a pregnant Lansdale woman in crash sentenced to decades in state prison

A West Virginia man who prosecutors said drove an “18,000-pound dump truck like a sports car,” killing a Lansdale woman and her unborn daughter, was sentenced Friday to 25 to 50 years in state prison.

Everett Clayton, 57, was convicted of two counts of third-degree murder at his trial in October for killing Kelli Adams, 31, who was eight months pregnant with her daughter, Emersyn.

Clayton, of Charleston, W.Va., was behind the wheel of a Ford F650 XLT Super Duty dump truck on Aug. 25, 2022, when he took a curve too sharply on South Park Avenue in Lower Providence Township and lost control, crashing nearly head-on into a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Adams. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

During Clayton’s sentencing before Montgomery County Court Judge William Carpenter, Adams’ family, friends and coworkers spoke through their tears in the standing-room-only courtroom, describing the legacy the mother of two leaves behind.

» READ MORE: As the trial in a crash that killed a pregnant woman in Montco begins, attorneys debate murder charge

At Cottage Seven Academy, the Phoenixville school where Adams worked as an emotional support educator, untold numbers of the most vulnerable students will no longer benefit from her help, they said. Her younger sister Stephanie Miller said losing her has “muted the colors of [her] personality.”

Adams’ father, Dean Miller, said the “weight of this tragedy is unbearable,” and that his family has been “forever altered” by a pain that words cannot fully express.

“Your honor, regardless of the sentence you choose today, there will never again be the sound of Kelli’s voice, never again be the warmth of her smile,” he said. “All these things and so many more have been taken from us. This isn’t murder. This is robbery.”

As Miller and the other speakers made their statements, Clayton declined to look at them, hiding his face in his hands.

Clayton’s lawyer, James Lyons, had urged Carpenter to consider his client’s cooperation with prosecutors in the case against Patrick Doran, the dump truck’s owner who failed to properly register or maintain it. Doran pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and is serving a 3½ to 7-year sentence in state prison.

“I understand, one million percent, why this family, their friends, and relatives want a maximum sentence here, and their pain and their grief are valid, regardless of what the court decides,” Lyons said. “But the unspeakable loss the family suffered is just one factor for the court to consider.”

First Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann reiterated the argument he made to jurors at the end of Clayton’s three-day trial in October, saying that Clayton never truly showed remorse for his actions.

“There was an inevitability to this,” McCann said. “If it wasn’t Kelli and Emersyn, it would’ve been someone else seriously injured or killed, based on the way he was driving around Montgomery County that day.”

Video recorded by Clayton as he drove showed him speeding for nearly 30 minutes before the crash as he attempted to keep up with a pickup truck he was following, at one point veering into oncoming traffic.

Clayton was driving nearly 60 mph as he approached the curve on South Park Avenue, and started to veer again into the opposite lane, prosecutors said. He then swung the truck sharply to the right, and had to make another sharp turn as the truck fishtailed and nearly ran off the road.

That second sharp swing put his dump truck in the direct path of Adams’ Chevrolet Tahoe, colliding with it with enough force to knock both vehicles off the road.

Clayton, addressing Adams’ family at the end of the hearing Friday, said he was remorseful and apologized for the grief he caused them.

“Living with the guilt of what happened for the rest of my life, to me, is worse than any death sentence,” he said.

But Adams’ family was clear and resolute in their feelings.

“Mr. Clayton, there will be one more day of judgment in your life,” Dean Miller said in court. “Pack light. It’s gonna be warm.”