Pardoned Jan. 6 defendant on trial for fatal DUI crash
Left: Lauren A. Wegner (Legacy obituary). Center: Shane Jason Woods fighting with a U.S. Capitol Police officer on Jan. 6, 2021 (FBI court filing). Right: Shane Jason Woods (Sangamon County (Ill.) Sheriff

Left: Lauren A. Wegner (Legacy obituary). Center: Shane Jason Woods fighting with a U.S. Capitol Police officer on Jan. 6, 2021 (FBI court filing). Right: Shane Jason Woods (Sangamon County (Ill.) Sheriff’s Office).

A defendant from the events of Jan. 6 has been found guilty by a jury for causing the death of a 35-year-old woman in a drunk driving incident on an Illinois road. Despite the conviction, the individual was acquitted of the gravest charge.

The defendant in question, Shane Jason Woods, aged 47, had previously been found guilty of attacking a journalist and law enforcement officers at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 before being pardoned by former President Donald Trump. Recently, an Illinois jury convicted Woods on counts of reckless homicide, aggravated driving under the influence, and aggravated fleeing and eluding. However, they exonerated him of the first-degree murder charge which carried a potential life sentence.

Instead, he faces between three and 14 years in prison when he’s sentenced, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

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Woods, apparently upset after an argument and then facing a decade in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, got behind the wheel on Nov. 8, 2022, after leaving a bar. He then sped away from a traffic stop before crashing head-on into the car driven by Lauren Wegner, killing her.

The now-convicted felon took the stand on his own defense on Wednesday, according to a courtroom report from the Sun-Times. He spoke of how his involvement in the Capitol riot weighed on him and how he was “national news.”

“Millions and millions of people hated me,” he reportedly testified.

Woods said that as his marriage fell apart in 2019 and 2020, he began to closely follow politics. Asked if he was an “ardent” supporter of Trump, he reportedly said he was “an ardent supporter of Americans.”

Wegner’s parents wore her ashes is necklaces around their necks and held them as the verdict was read, per the Sun-Times. Her father told the newspaper afterward that he and his wife were “not totally happy with the verdict. But we can’t argue with the verdict.”

Woods’ attorneys had argued for the lesser verdict and his supporters quietly applauded in approval when the verdict was read, the Sun-Times reported.

On Tuesday, a police officer reportedly testified that when he pulled a speeding Woods over, the defendant told him he wanted to “end it.”

“‘It takes a big f—ing man to say what I’m about to say’” the officer reportedly recalled Woods saying. “‘I’m gonna kill myself’”

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A former cop whose relative was dating Woods at the time saw him and also stopped. He could be heard on dashcam footage telling another officer that Woods was “involved in that Capitol deal.”

“Lauren died because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Prosecutor Derek Dion reportedly said during his opening statement. “And she couldn’t get out of the way.”

According to a police report, Woods’ blood alcohol level was .177 after the crash — more than twice the legal limit in Illinois.

Jurors also heard from a woman who was in another car at the time of the crash and was hit in the eye by flying glass, calling it the worst pain ever, the Sun-Times reported.

More from Law&Crime: Jan. 6 defendant who got busted with illegal guns and Army grenades gets the Trump pardon treatment

Prosecutors argued Woods knew there was a “strong probability” his actions could cause harm or death which is what led to the murder charge. But his defense attorneys noted that police originally arrested Woods for reckless homicide and not murder, per the Sun-Times.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the Illinois State Police trooper who provided the probable cause report for Woods’ arrest said in the report that while standing in the door to Woods room at the hospital where he was taken after the crash, the trooper overheard a conversation between Woods and a visitor.

“Nurses requested the visitors exit but prior to them leaving and while I was standing in the doorway of the treatment room, I overheard Woods speaking with a visitor, a white, middle age female, with blonde hair,” the trooper’s statement said. “During the conversation, I heard Woods state that he had intended on crashing his vehicle into a truck tractor semi-trailer.”

The state trooper said that Woods refused to answer questions after having been read his Miranda rights, but noted that “neighbours [sic] advised [him] later that an open 12oz Bud Light can had been located with the property that had been in Woods’ vehicle at the crash scene.”

Court records showed that he faced six charges, including first degree murder, aggravated driving under the influence, and aggravated fleeing and eluding a peace officer.

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