NEWS

Man avoids murder charge in bicyclist death, gets 7 years in prison

Stephen Herzog
SHERZOG@NEWS-LEADER.COM
Blake Basten

A Springfield man was sentenced last week to seven years in prison for the role he played in the death of a bicyclist, but a plea agreement helped him avoid a murder charge.

Blake Basten, 24, was originally facing a felony murder charge, which could have sent him to prison for life, after police say he was chasing his girlfriend through Springfield on Nov. 17 when she hit and killed a cyclist, Zachary Gibson, 23.

The girlfriend, Shannon R. Smith, 32, pleaded guilty earlier this year to leaving the scene of an accident.

Basten's guilty plea last week dropped the murder charge to an involuntary manslaughter conviction. He received the maximum seven years on that charge.

He also pleaded guilty to tampering with a motor vehicle, property damage, leaving the scene of an accident and resisting arrest.

On the same day, he pleaded guilty to burglary in a separate case and received a 10-year sentence. All Basten's sentences are set to run concurrently.

Shannon Smith

According to a probable cause statement, Basten was chasing Smith at high speeds last fall when Smith hit and killed Gibson along Kimbrough Avenue near Missouri State University.

The statement says Basten flashed a handgun and ran a stolen car into the back of Smith's car, a Chevy Impala.

Smith began fleeing in the Impala and later told police she was trying to get pulled over as she raced toward police headquarters.

Smith said she had arrived at the front entrance of the headquarters, stopped and honked her horn hoping for help, but Basten hit the rear of her car twice with the front of a Volkswagen Jetta.

Police later confirmed the Jetta was stolen.

Investigators say surveillance footage from the parking lot confirms Smith's story.

It was about 6:45 p.m., court documents say, that Smith was traveling about 85 mph when she attempted to brake and swerve but collided with Gibson.

Witnesses, whose identities are redacted in court documents, corroborated much of Smith's story.

Smith was arrested in Buffalo two days after the crash, and court documents say she had dyed her hair in an effort to conceal her identity.

Basten was arrested four days after the hit-and-run death while attempting to flee from police who wanted to question him.

Smith, who pleaded guilty in March to leaving the scene, still hasn't been sentenced. However, the charge triggered her probation to be revoked on a tampering conviction, and she was sent to prison for four years.

After Gibson's death, a memorial bicycle was placed near the spot where he was hit. The white bicycle, called a "ghost bike," is a common way to memorialize someone killed while riding.