A judge has been assigned in a case involving an Osborn man charged with second-degree murder in relation to a motor vehicle accident that caused the death of DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Clark.
Daren Adkins was assigned to 35-year-old Gary Wayne Downs’s case by Presiding Judge Ryan Horsman. Brent Elliott recused himself from the case last week. Downs is next scheduled for court on April 26th.
Downs is also charged with the felonies of resisting arrest, detention or stop by fleeing and escape or attempted escape from custody while under arrest for a felony.
A probable cause statement from the Highway Patrol accuses Downs of trying to escape from the rear passenger compartment of a patrol vehicle driven by Captain Tracy Neill with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. Neill requested assistance from Sheriff Clark in arresting Downs in June and the Patrol with field sobriety and breath testing.
Downs allegedly pushed open the rear door of the patrol vehicle and left the scene on foot. The Patrol reports Neill’s attempts to regain custody of Downs were suspended when she was told Clark was involved in a crash about half of a mile from the scene of the traffic stop from which Downs fled.
Clark was pronounced dead after being transported to Mosaic Life Care in Saint Joseph.
