Former Jefferson County Deputy Colby McCreary of De Soto received two years’ probation for the misdemeanor DWI he was facing in connection with a 2023 fatal accident in Festus.
His wife, Savannah McCreary, died shortly after the crash. She was 28 and left behind two young children.
During Colby McCreary’s sentencing on Thursday, Feb. 6, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tony Manansala gave him a suspended imposition of sentence with two years’ supervised probation through Eastern Missouri Alternative Sentencing Services (EMASS), a private company that provides probation supervision services. If McCreary successfully completes the terms of his probation, the case will be closed and there will be no conviction on his record.
McCreary, 31, also must complete 50 hours of community service within three months, according to court records.
He was ordered “not to operate a motor vehicle within eight hours of consuming alcohol” and not enter any establishment that primarily sells alcohol, the report said.
McCreary must register with the Regional Justice Information System through the Probation Office, which means his personal information will be entered in the REJIS database, which law enforcement officers may access during his probation. Within 90 days, McCreary also must complete the Substance Awareness Traffic Offender Program (SATOP), as well as attend a victim impact panel, which means he must listen to people who were affected by his DWI or similar crimes share their personal stories about the impact it had on them.
McCreary also had to pay about $154 in court costs.
A jury trial had been scheduled in the case for Dec. 5, but on Dec. 4, McCreary entered a “blind plea,” which means he pleaded guilty with no plea agreement in place and the judge in the case would decide his sentence.
In June 2023, McCreary was charged with one count of DWI resulting in the death of another and first-degree involuntary manslaughter, each one a class C felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison. However, in January 2024, the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced that it had amended the charges against McCreary, and he was instead charged with a class B misdemeanor DWI charge that is punishable up to six months in jail and a possible fine of up to $1,000.
When the charges against McCreary were reduced to a misdemeanor, Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Trisha Stefanski said prosecutors had received findings from a crash reconstruction report and felt there was “a reasonable doubt as to whether McCreary committed the offenses with which he was originally charged.”
Festus Police conducted the initial crash investigation, and then the Missouri State Highway Patrol took it over. After the highway patrol completed the crash reconstruction report, it issued the following findings:
■ Neither person in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt.
■ A passenger in a second vehicle that had been travelling near the McCreary vehicle indicated Savannah McCreary had “put her butt in the window” as they passed the McCreary vehicle just before the crash.
■ Prior to the crash, the right front passenger seat’s occupant size classification registered as “child,” and given Savannah McCreary’s actual weight, indicates she was not fully in her seat in the five seconds before the crash.
■ The vehicle was traveling at 86 mph prior to the crash and was travelling at 74 mph at the time of impact, with the speed slowing 1.3 seconds before impact.
■ The vehicle was traveling straight down the interstate until 1.8 seconds before impact, when the wheel was abruptly turned in a clockwise direction. This caused the vehicle to veer to the right. It is unknown what led to this turn of the steering wheel.
■ The shift lever was in the “drive” position until 1.5 seconds before impact, when it was moved to the left, which occurred just after the steering wheel was abruptly turned. The abrupt turn of the steering wheel could have caused an unrestrained passenger to come into contact with the shifter, causing it to move to the left.
■ Then, at 1.1 seconds before impact, the wheel was turned counterclockwise. The vehicle’s rate of spinning then slowed as the driver appeared to counter-steer just before impact.
■ The vehicle ran off the right side of the road, crossed a ditch, ran into a small rock bluff, then overturned. Both occupants of the vehicle were ejected. Savannah McCreary’s lower body was exposed.
According to previous reports, Colby McCreary was driving a 2015 Jeep Cherokee on southbound I-55 near the 177-mile marker at 1:05 a.m. April 30, and the vehicle ran off the right side of the road and hit a rock bluff, and the vehicle overturned, ejecting him and Savannah McCreary, who died at the hospital following the crash.
Colby McCreary was injured in the accident.
While the Missouri State Highway Patrol often handles accidents along the interstate, especially serious ones, Festus Police worked the crash involving the McCrearys.
More than a week after the crash, Festus Police Chief Doug Wendel asked the Highway Patrol to complete a follow-up investigation. According to the report from that highway patrol investigation, a toxicology report showed McCreary’s blood-alcohol content was .17 percent, more than twice the legal limit in Missouri, which is .08 percent.
Based on a report from the hospital, where he was taken after the crash, he was diagnosed with alcohol intoxication, the highway patrol said in its report.
Colby McCreary is the son of De Soto Police Chief Jeff McCreary.