Jonathan “Jack” McCaffery, son of University of Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery, was found guilty in court filings Tuesday for failing to yield to a pedestrian.
McCaffery was charged with the crash on May 22 at Melrose Avenue and Kennedy Parkway in west Iowa City that led to the death of Corey Hite, 45, an Iowa National Guard Sgt. First Class from Cedar Rapids. According to a filing Tuesday, McCaffery will have a sentencing hearing on Oct. 13 at the Johnson County Courthouse.
He was tried for failure to yield to a pedestrian, a simple misdemeanor, and a traffic offense. Before his trial started, McCaffery waived his right to appear in court and also elected to have a bench trial.
Under Iowa law, possible penalties include a fine up to $1,000 and a suspension of his drivers license for six months.
His trial began Aug. 29 and featured testimony from witnesses of the accident. This included Lynn Wright, a postal carrier in Iowa City, who testified she was in a mail truck behind another car. Wright said this other car had waved at Hite, signaling him to cross the road.
“He started jogging across and he never stopped and looked to see if there were any cars coming in the left lane,” Wright said during her testimony. “[McCaffery] hit the brakes when he was hitting the guy but it was too late.”
A police investigation of the accident concluded that McCaffery had not been using his phone, nor was he under the influence of drugs or alcohol. During the trial, prosecutors argued that despite not knowing Hite was there, under the law, McCaffery was still required to yield to pedestrians even if he didn’t know there were any.
In his ruling on the case, Sixth Judicial District Judge Mark Neary wrote that he “did not comply with common law requirements under the circumstances,” and that McCaffery should have known to slow down considering there were other cars stopped at the crosswalk.
“Mr. McCaffery’s failure to approach the crosswalk with care, either by slowing down and/or stopping when approaching the crosswalk in such a way to be able to avoid any contact with a pedestrian lawfully within the crosswalk, indicates that Mr. McCaffery failed to meet the requirements of a reasonable driver in such a situation,” Neary wrote.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article misrepresented the possible penalties faced by McCaffery. Under Iowa law, possible penalties for this case include a fine up to $1,000 and a suspension of his drivers license for six months. The Daily Iowan regrets this error.