A Tennessee man who killed five people by triggering a chain-reaction crash on a Wyoming interstate died in prison Tuesday, the Wyoming Department of Corrections reports.
Arthur Andrew Nelson, 59, was reportedly high on meth during the crash two years ago.
He was sentenced in September to 98-110 years in prison for causing the deaths of Salomon Correa, Magdalene Franco, Andrea Prime, Suzy Prime and Ava Luplow. The five were students traveling back to Arkansas after visiting Jackson Hole Bible College in Jackson Hole.
In its Tuesday statement announcing Nelson’s death, the Wyoming Department of Corrections did not give a cause of death but said it will conduct an autopsy to determine one.
“WDOC does not release protected health information,” the statement adds.
Forgiveness At Every Turn
Nelson’s case has been unique, as the father of two of his victims has been outspoken from the start. Phil Prime forgave Nelson after the crash and prayed for him from that time on, he said at Nelson’s sentencing.
“I do forgive Mr. Nelson, and I have never hated him. Yet I pray for him and continue to pray for him,” said Prime. “I want him to know God, and his son Jesus Christ, who forgave me of all my sins — and in turn asks me to do the same.”
Prime had also said as much in an earlier interview with Cowboy State Daily just days after the crash.
Sarah Wimberly, the mother of Ava Grace Luplow, also openly forgave Nelson in court during his sentencing.
That Night
The night of Jan. 22, 2023, Nelson was driving the wrong way when he collided head-on with an Infiniti SUV in the passing lane of Interstate 80, next to a FedEx tractor-trailer near Sinclair, Wyoming, court documents say.
The Infiniti rotated into the side of the FedEx truck, whose driver stopped on the interstate’s right shoulder, while the Infiniti skidded to a stop in the driving lane facing the wrong way.
The Infiniti’s three occupants were later treated for minor injuries and released from the hospital.
Nelson’s truck rotated, tripped and rolled once, wobbling to a stop on the right shoulder of the road.
Debris littered the interstate.
The female driver of an MS Freight tractor trailer driving toward the scene shifted from the right lane into the left and ran over a large chunk of debris, causing her truck to bounce so hard her driver’s side front steer tire failed, sending her and her truck hurtling through the median and into the opposite eastbound lanes.
The freight truck smacked into a Ford F-150 pickup containing the five people who were later found dead on scene. The Ford burst into flames: four occupants were burned and one died during or after being ejected from the vehicle, court documents say.
The freight truck, halted in a jackknife position, also caught fire.
Once on scene, Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Corey McCallister rushed to the freight truck with his fire extinguisher and blasted the truck driver’s burning head and truck cab with it.
The truck driver sustained “severe injuries,” court documents say.
Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
