LAWTON – A local truck driver faces a trial next year for causing the death of a motorist when an unsecured sheet of plywood slipped from his truck and smashed into the victim’s windshield.
Virgil Leon Brooks, 45, of Lawton, is charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Donald Eugene Ryans Jr., 62, of Lawton, in September 2022.
Brooks is scheduled for a jury trial next January or February, presided over by District Judge Emmit Tayloe. Brooks is free from custody on $25,000 bond.
An affidavit prepared by Lawton Police Officer Trenton Ulrich relates that Ryans was northbound on SW 82nd Street at approximately 10:47 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2022, when an unsecured sheet of plywood transported on a southbound Mack Grand truck dislodged and smashed into the windshield of Ryans’ Ford F250 pickup. The wood struck Ryans in the head, inflicting “mortal wounds,” Brooks’ criminal complaint states.
Ryans’ vehicle left the east side of SW 82nd Street, traveled through a nearby field and hit several trees before stopping in a field east of Southwestern Behavior Center at 1602 SW 82nd Street, records reflect.
Ulrich was dispatched that morning to the vicinity of 82nd Street and Lee Boulevard in response to an automated 911 alert “due to a vehicle with an airbag deployment,” the officer wrote. At 11:22 a.m. – 35 minutes after the incident – officers located Ryans’ pickup.
Ryans was transported by ambulance to Comanche County Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:30 p.m. that day.
Ulrich obtained surveillance video from Southwestern Behavioral “which showed a Waste Connections Inc. vehicle traveling southbound on SW 82nd Street a few seconds prior to” the mishap. The video “also appeared to show a sheet of plywood hanging from the driver-side cargo area” of the Waste Connections truck as it was traveling on 82nd Street.
Ulrich obtained search warrants for Waste Connections Inc. “and learned that the driver of the vehicle was Virgil Brooks.” Ulrich also obtained dash camera footage from the vehicle Brooks was driving “which showed Ryans’ windshield was intact prior to passing by Brooks’ vehicle.”
Dash camera footage also showed that Brooks “was notified by” a passenger in his truck “that something had fallen from his vehicle and struck Ryans’ vehicle, causing it to depart the roadway.”
Brooks “made no effort to return to the scene of the collision or to notify law enforcement of the collision,” Ulrich wrote in his sworn affidavit.
The manslaughter charge accuses Brooks of operating the Mack truck “with a load that was not properly secured...”
Anyone convicted of first-degree manslaughter must serve a prison sentence of “not less than four years,” Title 21, Section 715, of the Oklahoma Statutes decrees.
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