A 35-year-old Lubbock developer has been placed on five years of community supervision after admitting to negligently causing a crash during an August 2022 thunderstorm that left a mother and her son dead and two other children injured.
Jordan Merchant, who has been out on bond since April 2023, appeared Thursday with his attorney, Fred Stangl, in the 140th District Court where he entered a guilty plea to two counts of criminally negligent homicide, a state-jail felony that carries a punishment of six months to two years in jail.
However, as part of the plea deal with the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office, District Judge Douglas Freitag deferred a finding of guilt for five years, during which Merchant will be on community supervision.
If he completes his term of supervision, the case will be dismissed and Merchant will not be convicted. However, if prosecutors revoke his supervision, Merchant faces the full range of punishment for the state-jail felony.
Investigating a deadly crash in south Lubbock
Merchant was initially charged with two counts of manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which carry a punishment of two to 20 years in prison, but pleaded guilty to the lesser-inlcuded counts as part of a plea deal with the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office.
Merchant admitted to negligently casuing the Aug. 31, 2022, deaths of 44-year-old Joni Smith and her 9-year-old son Conrad Thomlinson, by speeding, failing to apply brakes in a timely manner or running a red light, according to court records.
The charge against Merchant stems from a Lubbock police crash investigation that began about 4:54 p.m. after officers responded to a wreck between a 2021 Ford F-250 and a 2014 Nissan Versa near the intersection of 114th Street and Indiana Avenue.
An initial investigation at the scene indicated the driver of the F-250, identified as Merchant, was traveling south on Indiana Avenue. Meanwhile, the driver of the Versa, identified as Smith, was traveling northbound on Indiana and turning west onto 114th Street.
The F-250 collided into the Versa’s right passenger side.
Thomlinson, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, died at the scene. Smith suffered serious injury and was taken to University Medical Center where she died.
Two more children, who were in the Versa’s rear passenger seats, suffered incapacitating injury, the warrant states.
According to the warrant, Merchant drove a pickup owned by 7B Building and Development, where he is listed as the principal and president of construction.
Witnesses at the scene told police that the driver of the F-250 ran a red light and was speeding. Thunderstorms that day brought heavy rainfall and created hazardous driving conditions.
Investigators also obtained video evidence that corroborated the witnesses’ description of events.
Court records show that in 2023, the civil suit filed by Smith’s family against Merchant was settled out of court.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Developer gets probation for crash that killed Lubbock mother, son
Reporting by Gabriel Monte, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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