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Jason Lynn McKnight, 55
After more than two hours of deliberating the prison sentence for a 55-year-old man found guilty of fleeing the scene of a fatal accident in Beaumont’s West End, Jefferson County jurors decided 27 years and six months was sufficient.
Jason Lynn McKnight, 55, of Beaumont walked away with bailiffs at about 10:40 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12, after jurors spent approximately three hours debating the man’s sentence after the three-day trial.
The incident stems from the March 29, 2020, wreck that killed bicyclist Edward Stedman IV, 37. Prosecutors asked for 37 years, but jurors were empowered to send McKnight to prison for life. Ultimately, they decided on 27 and a half years.
“His story that he hit a garbage can, that he thought he hit a garbage can is just that: garbage,” said Phillip Smith, a Jefferson County prosecutor. “The only reasonable verdict is guilty.
Officers most recently arrested McKnight in March 2020, after eye witnesses saw him hit a cyclist, identified as Stedman, on Delaware Road and continue driving, failing to render aid to the man who later died in a Houston hospital.
“I can’t see good enough to be driving – I shouldn’t be driving,” McKnight admitted to officers, as heard on recorded audio played in court. “I hit something. I did hear something. I didn’t hear nobody holler.”
McKnight, is quite familiar with criminal allegations – charged time and again for myriad offenses over the last several decades – but, this time, a man was critically wounded and left for dead in the street after McKnight allegedly struck the Beaumont bicyclist and fled the scene before help could arrive.
Sunday, March 29, 2020, at 9:09 a.m. Beaumont police officers responded to the 5300 block of Delaware in reference to a hit-and-run accident involving a bicyclist. Within five minutes, EMS, police and fire personnel were on the scene with Stedman, who was unresponsive and had to be life-flighted to a Houston hospital due to the extensiveness of his injuries. According to the probable cause affidavit describing the scene, the victim had a gash over his left eye, was bleeding from his left ear and had abrasions all over his face. Stedman succumbed to his injuries 10 days later.
“There’s no way in the world (the driver) didn’t know,” said an eyewitness. “It was crazy. I was about 100 yards behind (McKnight)… approaching the Montclaire light by H-E-B. I did not see a bicycle or really even notice the truck until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bike spinning around in the air. The bike and the guy bounced off the hood and probably bounced off his windshield.”
McKnight’s attorney, Ryan Gertz, admitted that his client had cataracts in his eyes and was driving with a suspended license. However, he repeatedly maintained the assertion that McKnight had no knowledge that he hit someone.
Jefferson County 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West sent the jury to deliberate at about 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Jurors mulled their options until Judge West sent them home at about 6 p.m.
For more on the story, pick up a copy of The Examiner Aug. 18.