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Trucker was on phone as rig plowed into van

Man charged in crash whose victims were misidentified

BY MARISOL BELLO
FREE PRESS
STAFF WRITER

September 2, 2006

Robert
Spencer of Canton is being held in the Wayne County Jail pending
extradition to Indiana.

Canton truck driver Robert Spencer was tooling along Interstate 69 in
northeast Indiana, chatting on his cell phone with his sister Nicole, playing a
guessing game like they had done dozens of times before.

Then Nicole heard a pop, like a car backfiring. Then screeching.

Then silence.

The next thing Nicole Spencer could hear over the phone was a man's voice
asking her brother if he was all right. He said he wasn't.

The events of the horrendous April 26 crash that led to the tragic mix-up of
two young Michigan women, Whitney Cerak, who lived, and Laura VanRyn, who died,
were detailed twice Friday: first by the prosecutor in Grant County, Ind., who
blamed him for the deaths of four college students and one school worker.

The second version came from Nicole Spencer, who said her brother is not the
monster prosecutors and police are making him out to be in a case that has
captured national headlines.

In a 13-page affidavit, Prosecuting Attorney James Luttrull Jr. charged
Robert Spencer, 37, with five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of
criminal recklessness, saying that he falsified log books, drove at least nine
hours more than he should have, and failed to take any action to stop the
accident.

Spencer, who faces up to eight years on each felony count, was in the Wayne
County Jail on Friday night awaiting extradition to Indiana.

Luttrull said Spencer's recklessness caused the accident on I-69 that gained
national attention when the identities of Cerak, 19, and VanRyn, 22, were mixed
up in the crash.

Both of the Michigan women were students at Taylor University in Indiana. For
several weeks, the VanRyn family stood vigil in Grand Rapids over the young
woman they thought was their daughter, when in fact she was Cerak.

Cerak's family, in turn, buried VanRyn in Gaylord, believing she was their
daughter.

The mix-up was uncovered almost two months later as Cerak came out of a coma
and was able to tell her caretakers who she was.

None of the families could be reached Friday.

In addition to VanRyn, students Bradley Larson, 22, of Wisconsin and
Elizabeth Smith, 22, and Laurel Erb, 20, both of Illinois, were killed in the
crash. Taylor employee Monica Felver, 53, of Indiana also died.

The affidavit paints the most detailed picture to date of the final moments
before the deadly encounter between Spencer's 1996 Freightliner and the van
filled with the five Taylor students and four school workers.

Spencer rolled up I-69 south of Ft. Wayne, going 69 m.p.h., slightly more
than the posted 65-m.p.h. speed limit, while on the phone with his sister.

He already had been on the road at least nine hours more than federal law
allowed, having falsified his logbook to say he was off-duty when in fact he was
working and communicating with his employer, Mike Brooks Inc. out of Iowa,
Luttrull said.

The driver's and passenger's side windows were down and the air-conditioner
was on full blast, even though it was 52 degrees outside.

As his rig crossed the median and sped into southbound traffic, Spencer never
tried to veer or take corrective action. He didn't try to brake until the point
of the crash.

After the accident, Spencer looked at the van and asked: "Did I hit
something? What happened? Who did this?" according to the affidavit.

Spencer told the police after the accident that his front left tire blew out
and caused him to swerve. But Luttrull said Friday that the investigation found
the tire blew as a result of the accident, not before.

Luttrull would not comment on some eyewitness accounts that Spencer had
fallen asleep behind the wheel.

But Spencer's sister disputed those accounts.

"How could he be falling asleep if I was talking to him?" she asked.

Nicole Spencer, who lives in metro Detroit, said her brother told her he'd
even taken a nap earlier that day.

"If he had told me he was having a problem, I would have made him pull over,"
she said.

Spencer said her brother has been on disability since the accident and is
taking medication to deal with the stress.

"He's a walking pharmacy," she said. "This is something he has to live with
for the rest of his life. It wasn't his fault.

"They're making him out to be Freddy Krueger three times over," she said,
referring to the horror movie character. "He's already going through enough hell
without you people putting him through this."

Contact MARISOL BELLO at 313-222-6678 or [email-masked].

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.