Top 10 stories: No. 8: 15-year-old killed in high-speed chase

News of a high-speed pursuit that ended in a single-vehicle crash taking the life a 15-year-old girl stretched beyond the Wicksburg community where the crash happened.

Whitney Leigh Lake died from injuries she suffered while traveling in a pickup truck driven by Robert Yancey Wills on Jan. 26. The crash ended a high speed chase with Houston County Sheriff’s deputies, and happened at a creek bridge on Judge Logue Road several miles off U.S. 84.

A jury convicted Wills, 40, of Newton, in August of murder for his involvement in the crash. Houston County Circuit Court Judge Ed Jackson sentenced Wills to 35 years in prison for Lake’s death. Wills faced between 10 and 99 years for the class A felony conviction.

A Houston County Sheriff’s deputy testified during the trial the pursuit stemmed from an incident on Albert Road near U.S. 84 off Judge Logue Road. Testimony during the trial also included how a deputy found Wills without a shirt on inside his parked truck on the side of Albert Road with another person inside the vehicle. The deputy also testified Wills drove away when the deputy attempted to question him about why they were parked on the side of the road. Testimony also included speeds during the pursuit reached 108 mph in a 45 mph speed zone.

Wills testified in his own defense during the trial, and said he stopped on the dead end road so he and Lake could change out of the wet clothes they had worn on an afternoon hunting trip. He told the court he changed outside while Lake changed inside the vehicle.

As Wills finished putting his shirt on he said he saw a bright light shined inside the truck, and quickly drove away because he couldn’t tell who it was and thought they might be after him for some reason.

Wills acknowledged some responsibility for the fatal crash, and also denied any inappropriate activity inside the vehicle with Lake. During the trial Wills repeatedly called Lake’s death an accident.