A man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Monday in connection with a fatal crash on I-85 in Orange County nearly two years ago.
Robert Jason Mace spent the night of September 12, 2016, drinking and texting 35-year-old Lisa Nicole Parker, who was the 40-year-old Mace’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and mother of his child. The next day Parker died in a crash that left I-85 southbound closed for several hours.
Mace, of Graham, entered the guilty plea on Monday in Orange County Court as part of a plea arrangement in connection to that crash.
Assistant District Attorney Jeff Nieman told the court as part of the state’s factual basis presented on Monday that Mace drove to Virginia on the morning of September 13, 2016, to meet with Parker because he wanted to see his son.
Parker got into the vehicle with Mace after meeting at a gas station. From there, Nieman said, eyewitnesses recalled seeing Mace’s vehicle weaving in and out of traffic and driving at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour. When driving through Orange County, Mace drove onto the shoulder attempting to pass an 18-wheeler. But another 18-wheeler was broken down and parked on the shoulder just ahead.
Mace attempted to pull back into traffic, Nieman said, but was only partially successful.
Mace’s car sheered from front to back “like a can opener,” Nieman said. The prosecution said it appeared Parker was killed instantly and that her arm had been completely torn from her body.
Mace’s maimed vehicle continued traveling after the initial contact and struck a truck, causing it to flip. The driver of the truck was able to escape by kicking out his windshield, Nieman said. But the driver of the truck, who was in the courtroom on Monday, had continued to suffer neurological issues since the crash.
Mace was driving without a license. Nieman said that Mace’s license had been revoked in 2001 after three DWI convictions. That hadn’t seemed to stop Mace from driving, Nieman said, pointing 11 citations for driving without a license since it was revoked. Prosecutors said Mace had a blood-alcohol content of .12 after the crash, above the state’s legal limit of .08. Mace also had cocaine and marijuana in his system.
Nieman said that Mace had, at least six times, expressed concern while he was in the hospital about whether he would get in trouble.
Mace will now serve between 16 and 20 years in prison on the various charges, including second-degree murder. Sentencing is going to be carried out on October 22. Mace remains out on bond until that hearing.
While another driver was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in a trial in Orange County connected to a vehicular-related death earlier this year, Nieman said this was the first guilty plea to a second-degree murder charge for a similar case in the county.
Photo via Orange County Sheriff’s Office
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