A 34-year-old Albion man must serve two years of probation after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a jury trial in Phelps County Court earlier this year. On Tuesday morning, Phelps County Judge Michael Mead also ordered Andy Eickhoff to perform 20 hours of community service, pay a $1,000 fine and serve four days in jail beginning Saturday, August 24, 2024.

Eickhoff was also fined $100 for careless driving. He must also serve four days beginning April 18, 2025, and three days on April 28, 2026, the victim’s birth date, as well as four days on Memorial Day weekend 2025 and three days on Memorial Day weekend 2026.

Among the numerous probation conditions for Eickhoff were participation in a driver safety training course and an empathy course for victims of crime.

The case stems from an accident on March 28, 2023, on Highway 183, about 5 miles north of Holdrege. A northbound semi-truck driven by Eickhoff struck the rear of a northbound Suburban driven by Peggy Morten. This caused the Suburban to cross into the oncoming lane and collide head-on with a southbound pickup truck. The driver of the pickup, 50-year-old Lawrence Johnson of Holdrege, later died at a hospital in Holdrege.

After a three-day trial in April 2024, a Phelps County District Court jury found Eickhoff guilty of vehicular manslaughter and negligent driving.

Verdict

In her testimony in court during the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Phelps County Prosecutor Natalie Nelsen-Pacey said that a charge of vehicular manslaughter by its very nature means that someone has lost their life. She said Lawrence Johnson leaves behind “a wife, two children and a grandchild.” She said it bothered her that the defendant “has not taken responsibility for his actions.” Nelsen-Pacey continued, “Although he was found guilty of reckless driving and vehicular manslaughter, he told the probation officer in the pre-sentencing interview, ‘I don’t know what else I could have done?’ to avoid the accident.”

Nelsen-Pacey said she believes “it’s clear he wasn’t paying attention, and if he had been paying attention, we probably could have avoided the whole situation” and “for him to say he doesn’t know what else he could have done, I think, maybe just means he’s downplaying his own responsibility and his own involvement in it.”

Defense attorney John Sauder outlined some of the “sentencing factors that every court must consider in imposing a sentence in a criminal case.”

He said, “We simply do not have a case here where there is an intent to harm, to use violence or to do wrong to another person. What we have here … is an accident.” Sauder was quick to add that they were not trying to downplay the severity of what happened, nor were they trying to ignore the tragedy. Sauder said it affected Eickhoff’s life and he is remorseful. Sauder said his client did not “drive down the road without a care in the world,” noting that Eickhoff had stopped and taken a nap that morning to make sure he was rested before driving again. At the time of the accident, Eickhoff was traveling back to Albion, where he lives, after making a hay delivery in southwest Kansas earlier in the day.

Eickhoff took the opportunity to address the court, saying he had not intended to cause an accident that morning and that he was “extremely regretful” about the accident and the two other drivers involved. He said the memory of it haunts him daily… “I believe I did everything in my power that day to avoid the accident.”