NEWS

Woman pleads guilty to leaving fatal hit-and-run

Stephen Herzog
SHERZOG@NEWS-LEADER.COM

The woman who hit and killed a bicyclist with her car in November has pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. The man whom she says she was evading still faces a murder charge.

Shannon R. Smith, 32, pleaded guilty Friday and hasn't yet been sentenced but was ordered to report to probation and parole.

Prosecutors charged her boyfriend, Blake Basten, 24, with second-degree murder in December.

According to a probable cause statement, Basten was chasing Smith at high speeds through Springfield on Nov. 17 before Smith hit and killed Zachary Gibson, 23, 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.

Smith allegedly began fleeing in a Chevy 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 allegedly 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 break and swerve but collided with Gibson.

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

Basten is charged with felony murder, a charge in which a person can be found guilty of murder if that person is committing a felony and someone dies.

In this case, prosecutors say Basten was committing the crime of tampering in the first degree and domestic assault in the second degree. The perpetuation of those crimes, prosecutors say, resulted in the death of Gibson.

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 about the original crash.

Smith's sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 25.