Man who plowed truck into crowded parking lot is convicted

CLINTON — When Lee Cromwell's truck raced backward through a crowded parking lot, prosecutors said he might as well have fired a gun into the heart of the throng.

James Robinson died pushing his two daughters, Jade and Jackie, out of the truck's path. Other victims lived but still suffer from injuries caused as the Dodge Ram pickup driven by Cromwell, 65, careened through a crowd after the July 4, 2015, fireworks show at A.K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge, striking people and vehicles.

"He doesn't have to know he's going to run over somebody to be guilty," prosecutor Tony Craighead told an Anderson County jury. "He just has to know driving through that parking lot at that speed was reckless."

Jurors agreed. They deliberated about four hours before finding Cromwell guilty Wednesday of vehicular homicide in the death of Robinson, 37, and eight counts of aggravated assault against those struck or otherwise hurt in the rampage.

Read more: http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2017/02/15/jury-gets-case-deadly-anderson-crash/97936730/