No Indictment For Tuscaloosa Man Accused In Fatal 2021 Crash That Killed Three

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Family members are calling for justice after a grand jury's decision to drop criminal charges against the only survivor of a 2021 head-on collision that killed three people in Cottondale.

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As Patch previously reported, 34-year-old Braxton Finlay Connell was initially charged with three counts of criminally-negligent homicide and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia due to the two-vehicle crash on the morning of Sept. 30, 2021.

Following the fatal collision, the Tuscaloosa Police Department said Connell was driving a white sedan and crossed the center line at Wildwood Trace and University Boulevard East. The car then reportedly collided with a Chevrolet S10, resulting in the deaths of the three occupants: Marty Dale Green, 40; Ashley Denise Stewart, 35; and Mary Hagadorn, 35.

According to the accident reconstruction report obtained by Patch, Connell's driving speed at the time of the crash was estimated to be 80 mph.

Green and Stewart, who were both pronounced dead at the scene, were residents of Northport. Hagadorn — a native of Brookwood — was transported to the hospital for treatment, but died a short time after the head-on collision.

District Attorney Hays Webb, whose office presented the case to the grand jury, confirmed the No Bill handed down in the case to Tuscaloosa Patch and could say little on the record apart from raising the possibility that — as in all criminal cases — additional evidence discovered in the future could still be presented to the grand jury and result in an indictment.

"This No Bill is no different from any other," he said. "It's final, absent additional evidence."

Kristy Herring, the younger sister of Stewart, told Patch her family was disappointed in the result and pointed to the inexperience of the district attorney's prosecutor and a failure of the investigators to articulate the basic facts of the evidence that could have led to an indictment.

"The big thing is the ball was dropped here," she said. "There's so many signs that [Braxton] is wrong and for the Tuscaloosa Police Department, it's their job to work the case and document the evidence and obviously somebody dropped the ball. You've already failed the family, so at least charge him with the crimes he committed."

Herring went on to explain the pain her family is living through — more than a year later and at the holidays, with her sister's five children having to endure the season without a mother.

"My Mom thought she had a little bit of closure thinking he was going to jail, somebody killed your kid and they're not even going to jail for it," she said. "Five kids — a total of 10 kids don't have their parents, then the cops just fail you. What are they really getting paid to do? For people to not investigate and do their jobs. I just couldn't imagine that there are other families that have gone through this."

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