Shelby County Fatal Speeding Case Concludes

A Shelbyville man has been sentenced to 364 days in Shelby County Jail for speeding for traveling at least 35MPH over the speed limit.

Briar True was arrested after an incident on June 4, 2020 when a vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian, 84-year-old Sidney Manning, as Manning was crossing Illinois Route 16 near the US Army Corps of Engineers Visitors Center at Lake Shelbyville shortly before 5am. 

The crash resulted in an extensive investigation by Illinois State Police using crash reconstruction information. There were no independent eyewitnesses to the incident. A bench trial took place on June 16, 2021 where Judge Martin Siemer found True guilty of the speeding offense. At the trial, Brian Scott and Steve Coady testified as expert witnesses in crash reconstruction. They estimated True's vehicle was traveling between 82 and 98MPH at the point of impact. The speed limit at the scene is 45MPH. 

Siemer sentenced True to the jail time, the maximum sentence possible, at a hearing on Tuesday. The judge shared that the defendant's conduct caused harm to another and that was the overriding factor warranting the maximum sentence.