Former Jan. 6 Defendant Found Guilty Of Reckless Homicide -- Not First-degree Murder -- Over Fatal 2022 Crash

SPRINGFIELD — A man once convicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot has been found guilty of reckless homicide by a downstate jury over the fatal wrong-way crash he caused in 2022 while trying to kill himself over his federal prison sentence.

Shane Jason Woods, who was later sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison for assaulting two people during the Capitol riot, now faces a maximum of five years in prison for the death of 35-year-old Lauren Wegner of Skokie following the jury’s verdict Wednesday.

The jury also found Woods guilty of aggravated driving under the influence and aggravated fleeing and eluding a peace officer, for which he could face additional time. Sentencing has been set for Aug. 19.

The three-day trial in the courtroom of Sangamon County Judge Ryan Cadagin turned on whether Woods, who faced a first-degree murder charge, knew he “had a strong probability of causing great bodily harm or death” when he drove his GMC Sierra into oncoming traffic on Interstate 55 on Nov. 8, 2022.

Defense attorney Daniel Fultz conceded during closing arguments Wednesday that Woods was guilty of aggravated driving under the influence and aggravated fleeing and eluding a peace officer.

However, Fultz argued that prosecutors had gone overboard by charging Woods with first-degree murder. He urged the jury to find Woods guilty of reckless homicide, instead.

Woods took the witness stand in his own defense Wednesday and testified that he meant to drive head-on into a semi-truck. He explained to the jury that “big truck beats little truck.”

“I figured I would die and he would be fine,” Woods testified.

Special Prosecutor Derek Dion seized on that testimony during his own closing argument. He told the jury that Woods acknowledged “he was trying to do something that was inherently deadly.”

Wegner “died because of the defendant’s choices, and he should be held accountable,” Dion said.

“Find him guilty,” he urged.

Woods made the decision to drive his truck into oncoming traffic more than two years before President Donald Trump handed down a sweeping pardon last January, clearing nearly everyone convicted in the Capitol riot.

While those charges no longer hang over Woods’ head, the Sangamon County jury that considered the murder case still heard plenty about the riot — and how it factored into Woods’ decision-making in November 2022.

Woods testified Wednesday that, following his June 2021 arrest for assaulting a law enforcement officer and a cameraman at the Capitol, he believed that “millions and millions of people” hated him.

“I was national news,” Woods said.

That kind of attention was jarring to Woods, who said he grew up in the small village of Divernon. He said he received hate mail, endured online harassment and his children were bullied at school.

Woods said his arrest over the riot also ended his previously successful heating and air conditioning business in Auburn.

“I would have rather been dead than alive,” Woods testified.

Asked Wednesday whether he’d become an “ardent supporter of President Trump,” Woods replied, “I would say an ardent supporter of Americans.”

However, Woods told the jury that he regretted his actions at the Capitol “100%.”

By the time of the fatal crash in November 2022, Woods had pleaded guilty to his role in the riot and faced up to nine years in federal prison.

Woods testified that, the night of the crash, he’d gotten into a fight with his girlfriend. He’d also tried to kill himself twice by then, including by trying to hang himself in October 2022.

A Divernon police officer spotted Woods speeding north on I-55 and pulled him over at exit 88 near Springfield’s southern border. During the stop, Woods allegedly told the officer, “It takes a big f—-ing man to say what I’m about to say: I’m gonna kill myself.”

Woods acknowledged that, when that officer tried to pull him over, he became worried that he’d be forced to begin serving his sentence over the Capitol riot sooner than expected.

He testified that he “didn’t know exactly” what he was doing when he turned into oncoming traffic, but that he understood he was driving the wrong way onto a highway off ramp.

Woods said he was “figuring I was getting ready to die.”

Though Woods testified that he was aiming for a semi-truck, he said “a little car was in front of me, and I tried to steer out of the way, but we both turned in the same direction.”

Fultz asked Woods if he “took a young lady’s life who had no skin in the game?”

“No,” Woods said, “she’s innocent.”

Dion pushed back during his cross-examination, pressing Woods on whether he understood what would happen when he turned the wrong way onto I-55.

Eventually, Dion asked, “How old are you?”

Woods told the prosecutor he was 47. Dion then asked whether Woods had ever driven into oncoming traffic before.

“A person doesn’t do that,” Woods said.

“Why not?” the prosecutor asked.

“Because it’s reckless,” Woods told him.

“Someone can be killed?” Dion asked.

“That’s what happened,” Woods conceded.