Jason Boislcair (Photo courtesy of Baxter County Sheriff’s Office)
A Gassville man whose charges include negligent homicide and second-degree battery stemming from a traffic accident in which a Yellville woman was killed appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Forty-year-old Jason Paul Boisclair pled guilty to the charges against him and was sentenced to six years in prison which is the maximum sentence for second-degree battery.
The victim’s mother started to read a victim’s impact statement to the court but was overcome with emotion, and the statement was read by a staff member from Prosecutor David Ethredge’s office.
In the statement, the victim’s mother said her daughter’s death “has made life hard especially around holidays. It just breaks my heart.”
The mother wrote that losing close relatives was bad enough, but “losing a child hits way different. We aren’t supposed to bury our children, they are supposed to bury us.”
Her daughter’s greatest fear “was dying in a fire and she had to live it,” the mother wrote.
Boisclair’s attorney said his client wanted the victim’s family to know that he was “deeply sorry for what happened.”
THE ACCIDENT
According to the probable cause affidavit, the crash happened Feb. 10, 2023, along U.S. Highway 62/412 near Tucker Cemetery Road.
The 2003 Lincoln Town Car driven by Boisclair was reported to have crossed the center line and slammed into a 1999 Ford occupied by then 27-year-old Tapanga Maxwell and 45-year-old Brandon Phillips of Lincoln.
According to a report from the Arkansas State Police, the vehicle occupied by Maxwell and Phillips went off the highway after being hit, rolled over and caught fire.
Maxwell was killed.
TOXICOLOGY TESTS
Toxicology tests showed Boisclair to have marijuana and Benzodiazepine in his system. At the time, his driver’s license was suspended for driving under the influence.
Benzodiazepine is found in prescription depressants given to relieve anxiety, muscle spasms and seizures. The most common benzodiazepines are Xanax, Valium and Ativan, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a search of Boisclair’s vehicle the day after the crash turned up a small quantity of marijuana, a vape pen, an unopened box of vape cartridges and an empty box of cartridges.
Information was developed that Boisclair had been at a marijuana dispensary “getting his medicine” shortly before the fatal accident. Video tape from the dispensary is reported to show Boisclair purchasing items which were later found in his vehicle.
Video in the parking lot showed Boisclair going to his vehicle where he opened and closed the trunk before getting into the driver’s seat. He was then seen to move his vehicle and stop straddling two parking spaces.
While stopped, it appears Boisclair was “doing something with his hands.” Before leaving the parking lot, the video shows a light close to Boisclair’s face and his hands in a position making it appear “he was smoking something.”
Boisclair was interviewed four days after the crash at his home in Gassville. He said his trip to town consisted of going to an auto parts store and then to the “medical marijuana place.”
He said he had no memory of events surrounding the accident and woke up in the hospital not knowing what had happened.
Boisclair said he had been having seizures “a lot lately and don’t know what’s causing it.” He denied “smoking any of the stuff I bought in the dispensary on the way home. I put it all in the glove box.”
According to investigative reports, Boisclair was seen on security cameras in the dispensary between 6:30 and 7 p.m. The accident occurred at 7:13 p.m.
He has been free on $10,000 bond.
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