Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Student Kills Teacher in Deadly Senior Prank: Sheriff

Starting point is 00:00:00 A beloved high school teacher dies and a student is accused of killing him while he and his friends were carrying out a prank. The students' four friends also face charges in connection to the tragic death of Jason Hughes. I'll tell you about the warning the school district sent out before Hughes was killed and what his wife is now saying. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is crime fix. You know, being online can be really, really scary, especially if you do a search on yourself and you see. what's floating around on the web about you. Your name, your phone number, even your address could all be just sitting out there for data brokers and scam artists to steal and sell. Our sponsor Incogni will find which data brokers have your info and demand they remove it. Incogni actually found more

Starting point is 00:00:55 than 50 data brokers with my info and within days they got it removed. Setup takes just minutes. Create an account, authorize Incogni to act for you and they do the rest. And with their new unlimited Custom Removals feature, you can submit custom links where your data shows up and a team of privacy experts will remove it for you. So if you care about your online safety and you really should, take your data back with Incogny, use code crime fix for 60% off, an annual plan. Jason Hughes was loved by his wife, Laura, his children, and by students at North Hall High School, where he worked as both a math teacher and a coach. On Friday, March 6th, Hughes had finished the work week like the rest of us and was likely looking forward to the weekend. But tragically,

Starting point is 00:01:42 Jason Hughes wouldn't live to see Saturday. An 18-year-old student, a high school senior, is now charged with first-degree vehicular homicide and reckless driving for hitting Jason Hughes and killing him. Deputies say Hughes was killed as Jaden Wallace and his friends were carrying out a prank at Hughes's home. Jason Hughes, a husband and father to two young boys, is dead, and the sheriff says it happened all because of a prank. It's tragic and really hard to comprehend. This story takes us to Hall County, Georgia, about an hour northeast of Atlanta. It was Friday night around 11.40 p.m. when Hall County deputies got a call that a man had been run over by a pickup truck. That man was Jason Hughes. Hughes was rushed to the hospital, but he couldn't be saved. deputies and detectives began investigating Jason Hughes's death and how he could have been run over by a pickup truck. A press release from the sheriff says that Jaden Wallace and four other students went to Jason Hughes' house, where he lived with his wife, Laura, who was also a teacher in Hall County. The sheriff says Jaden Wallace and his friends rolled the trees at Hughes's house with toilet paper.

Starting point is 00:02:58 It's something that kids do. Jason Hughes came outside to see what was going on, and the group of five students got into two vehicles to leave. That's when the sheriff says Jaden Wallace started to drive away in his pickup truck, and Jason Hughes tripped and fell into the road and was run over. The sheriff says the five students stopped and tried to help Hughes until EMTs arrived. Jaden Wallace was taken into custody and charged with first-degree vehicular homicide and reckless driving. as I mentioned earlier. He was also charged with two misdemeanors, criminal trespassing and littering on private property. Wallace's four friends were also arrested and charged with those two

Starting point is 00:03:42 misdemeanors of criminal trespassing and littering on private property for rolling the trees at the Hughes' home. Those friends are Elijah Owens, Aidan Hux, Anna Lucie, and Ariana Cruz. What happened to Jason Hughes came a day after the school district had worn. warn students and their parents about the dangers of pranks, and they specifically warn junior and senior students. The district wrote on Facebook, parents and students, as we approach the eagerly awaited spring prom season, we want to take a moment to address an important matter regarding the conduct of our junior and senior students. While we understand that prom is a time for celebration and creating lasting memories, we must emphasize the importance of responsible behavior

Starting point is 00:04:30 and respect for others and their property. In previous years, some pranks during prom season, sometimes referred to as junior-slash-sener wars, have gone too far, resulting in damage to property. We urge all students to refrain from participating in any activities that may cause harm or destruction to school or personal property. Such actions not only reflect poorly on the individual involved, but also tarnish the reputation of our schools, families, and community. It's essential to recognize the serious consequences that can arise from engaging in destructive behavior. Damaging property can lead to criminal charges, not to mention the potential repercussions on your participation in graduation ceremonies and other special events

Starting point is 00:05:17 planned for this time of year. We cannot stress enough the importance of making responsible choices and thinking about the long-term impact of your actions. As representatives of your schools, families, teams, clubs, and the Hall County School District. We trust that you will uphold the values of integrity and respect. Let's make this prom season a time of celebration, camaraderie, and positive memories for everyone involved. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and let's work together to ensure a safe and memorable prom season for all. Now, after Jason Hughes died, the district issued a statement. Our hearts are broken. Jason Hughes was a loving husband, a devoted father, a passionate teacher, mentor, and coach who was loved and respected by students and colleagues.

Starting point is 00:06:06 He gave so much to so many in numerous ways as he faithfully served God. Our hearts and prayers go out to his wife and family. Grief crisis teams have been responding to the school and community since Saturday morning. Some of that crisis team is positioned at North Hall High School today. Students also led a memorial this morning at North Hall High School. I would anticipate numerous other opportunities to grieve and show support for the Hughes family in the hours and days ahead. And now we're hearing from Jason Hughes's wife, Laura. She's grieving the loss of her husband, but she is also supporting those five North Hall high school students and says she wants the charges against them dropped. In a statement released to the media, Laura Hughes said that Jason was close with these students and he went outside to catch them in the act,

Starting point is 00:06:55 not to angrily confront them. She said the road was slippery because it had rained, and when he stepped into the road, that is when he slipped. Hughes said, this is a terrible tragedy, and our family is determined to prevent a separate tragedy from occurring, ruining the lives of these students. This would be countered to Jason's lifelong dedication of investing in the lives of these children. So I want to bring in Meg Strickler. She's a criminal defense attorney who works down in the Metro Atlanta area. So she's about an hour away from Gainesville where this tragedy occurred. Meg, my God, I just think about this and I think to myself, you know, I'm a mom, you're a mom. This could be our kids or our husband. I mean, we could easily be on either side of this situation.

Starting point is 00:07:47 Your thoughts, you know, the deputies in Hall County, the detectives took in Jaden Wallace. They've charged him with, you know, the vehicular homicide, the reckless driving, and then the two misdemeanors, his friends are charged with the misdemeanors as well for the littering and all that. Your thoughts on this right off the bat. My guess is, and I'm only going to give you my guess, is that there is some video either from the dash of the car. You know, some cars these days have video, or there's door ring cams, whatever, pole cams, who knows, but I have a strong suspicion that they know.

Starting point is 00:08:23 know he was reckless driving. And that's why it's a first degree, at least at this stage. It must have been egregious. Because to charge it this way right off the bat means they know. And I don't know where they got that information from. It could be from witnesses. It could have been from the pole cam, could have been from ring cams. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:08:42 But a pickup truck running over somebody is a horrible, hard to digest storyline from a senior bank. I have a junior in high school daughter and you know when you're 17, 18, 19 years old, your brain isn't fully developed and they're not thinking straight. But this was just a senior, originally, this was just a senior prank. The toilet papering people's yards. How it got to this level is something that I don't think any of us can comprehend. No, not at all.

Starting point is 00:09:17 And I'm kind of envisioning and, you know, we're doing a little bit of speculating here, But I feel like we cover enough of these things. We know how things go. And we know how things can unfold at crime scenes. And just so the viewers know and the listeners know, I've requested the body-worn camera footage from this incident that can sometimes take some time, depending on what agency you're dealing with, depending on the state, depending on what the records laws are. You know, it could take us months and months to get this because of the ongoing investigation, or we could get it pretty quickly. I'm thinking it might take some time, but you know, you got an 18 year old kid here, this Jaden Wallace, and he's a senior in high school. I'm thinking, you know, this happens. He's accused of running over the teacher.

Starting point is 00:10:08 You know, obviously, this was not intentional, but they all stop, according to the sheriff. They render aid. They're trying to help their teacher who they're close to this guy. they know him, Jason Hughes, who's beloved, I'm thinking like he's probably, there's this like excited utterance city when the cops get there. He's probably like, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it. You know, I'm thinking this is how this unfolded. So he probably made a bunch of statements once the deputies got there. Is that what you're thinking happened to? 100%. And also the other people that are charged in misdemeanors, what happened, what led to 1145 p.m. Okay, these are kids, and I'm sorry to jump to the conclusion that alcohol was involved or marijuana or who knows what, but it, having two teenagers, I literally have two teenagers, I know a little bit more, plus I'm a criminal defense lawyer.

Starting point is 00:11:03 It seems that alcohol could be involved. Now, remember, when one is arrested, that doesn't mean what's going to turn out as an indictment. And also when you are under the age of 21, our DUI laws, I think, across the country the same. They're lower. Okay. So I think they charged with the vehicular homicide with reckless driving as the underlying offense to get to the first degree. But it could get higher if they did a blood test, breathalyzer, things we don't know yet. When you get your body cam, we're going to learn more.

Starting point is 00:11:36 But I just have to think alcohol could have been a problem here. and could have been part of this and that made their judgment be more problematic about rushing off in your in your pickup truck in a neighborhood because it's never okay to speed through a neighborhood i mean it is never okay we all have neighborhoods we live in it is never okay to speed through there period we could learn a lot more once there's a preliminary hearing which at this point is scheduled for april first and and yes the bar at that hearing is probable cause. You know, that's all that they have to show the judge. And then it would go to a grand jury and the charge could be increased. And right now, Jaden Wallace is the only one charged with

Starting point is 00:12:26 causing the death of Jason Hughes because he was the person driving the pickup truck, according to the sheriff's deputies. So I want to talk now about the statement that Laura Hughes Jason Hughes's wife put out. She wants the charges dropped. And I'm kind of like, whoa. I mean, that's very magnanimous of her, very generous of her. She is saying, look, my son and my husband did not go out there angry to confront these kids. He loved these kids.

Starting point is 00:13:02 He knew these kids. He went out there to catch them in the act, you know, and he fell. And that's why this happened. You know, she's saying he fell. and slipped and then Jaden ran over him but still I mean we have an incident here that's why the state prosecutes case is not right victims have input but the prosecutor is the DA is going to make the ultimate decision here and again the the surrounding facts is what's going to make it more egregious or make it less egregious she works at the school too she's

Starting point is 00:13:38 subjectively involved because it's her husband but she's subjectively involved involved too and I'm sorry to interrupt you she knows these students and I will tell you from experience that when victims are as compassionate this early on that does kind of bode well for a resolution where what helps this case and I hate saying that what helps this case is the age the accidental nature of it and the fact that the victims family doesn't want to have any kind of prosecution what hurts this case is to be determined. You know, what was said, who behaved well, who didn't behave well, was there any alcohol involved,

Starting point is 00:14:19 were there any pills, drugs, whatever, in the car? I'm not in any way implying that, I'm just saying from experience. And then also a really good lawyer, I've certainly gotten these cases down to probation when they do a lot of community service, they do their own kind of, counseling to make better decisions if this Jaden Wallace is heading off to college you know these are things where the judge might be more compelled to keep them on the positive road and that remains to be seen I mean there's still a lot we don't know I mean this could just be a tragic accident but we have that reckless driving

Starting point is 00:14:59 component of this we don't know how fast he was going and we don't know the exact details of what happened other than Jason Hughes was, you know, tragically run over by a pickup truck and couldn't be saved. I mean, it's horrifying, you know, just absolutely awful. They did stop. I mean, that bodes well for them. It's not like they took off. I'm sure they were in shock. Like, what just happened? You know, you're throwing toilet paper rolls in somebody's trees one moment, and then you're rendering aid to your teacher the next. next. So what I don't think bodes well for these students is the fact that they were warned about this, warned against doing this a day earlier. The district had put that post on Facebook saying, look, we know prom season is upon us. We know that this junior, senior war thing happens, but you really need to be careful. We want parents and students to be aware that this can tarnish the reputation of students. Things can get out of.

Starting point is 00:16:08 hand things can happen I mean it was so it was so stunning to me just how prescient this was like that that the school posted this it was like they they've had maybe issues in the past where things got kind of out of hand and I want to put up the junior senior wars screen grab of this of the rules from the year prior this is from 2025 and it talked about the points you can earn If you got one point for, I guess, doing the toilet papering of a student. Two points if you toilet papered like teachers and coaches. Three for an administrator.

Starting point is 00:16:49 You lost three points if you were caught with people from other schools or a freshman or a sophomore. The rules are that you could only toilet paper houses, no cars, only paper or plastic products, no mailboxes, no foods or drinks, no saran wrap, no eggs. No paint, no weapons. Airsoft guns, splatball, pepper spray, et cetera. So, I mean, this is like floating around out there on the internet. The school basically told these kids and the parents put everybody on notice a day earlier saying, like, let's cool it with this. So it makes me think something could have happened last year that was not this bad, but was bad enough to, you know, cause them to be concerned enough to put out a warning. And these things do get out of control because you've got a group of teenagers who are going out.

Starting point is 00:17:41 I mean, why are we toilet papering people's houses? Maybe we could do a different kind of war where we feed the homeless and give out free public chickens to folks. I mean, like find another way to gain points. Do you see what I'm saying? Like make this into a positive role model storyline versus this. You know, I immediately think of toilet paper. houses, you know, I grew up in New Jersey. We did it when we were 10 for mischief night. We stopped once we turned 11. You know what I mean? Like it was a kid thing. And mischief night,

Starting point is 00:18:14 I don't think exists anymore in New Jersey or anywhere else. I know it was a northeastern kind of concept because now this Atlanta doesn't have it. But the point is that when your children, you can play these silly games. You know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, you know, you could have games where we're playing and doing little things. We're not toilet paper in people's houses at 18. I don't get it. I don't think by definition it's a good plan and maybe things will change across not just the state but across the nation when you have these silly games. Let's find a more positive way to do it. It reminds me of when I worked in local news and there were these warnings that would go out in the spring about Nerf wars and apparently

Starting point is 00:18:59 the kids were driving. I did a couple of stories about this where kids were driving. driving around with Nerf guns and shooting Nerf guns and doing stuff. And like, am I really doing a story about this? This is what kids are doing. And I mean, I guess when I was in high school, we didn't do that. They did toilet paper trees and stuff when I was in high school. They did that. But I don't think we ever did that to a teacher.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Like, you did it to like other students and stuff like that. But yeah, I guess, I mean, this is what people, I guess this is where we are as a society and doing it when you're like 18 is a lot. So I don't know. Maybe there is, as you said, another type of war that they could engage in that would, you know, something a little more constructive because obviously this thing was getting out of hand last year because they put the warning out this year. And now you've literally had a catastrophe of the worst kind. And I can guarantee that there'll be a lawsuit. The wife is compassionate right now, but there's still a suit against the insurance company to pay for lost wages for the future.

Starting point is 00:20:14 I'm not a civil lawyer, but I can virtually guarantee that will come of this as well in addition to criminal charges. And it's really up to these folks, these four children, these four, excuse me, I call them children, these four 18-year-old adults to take the next step to make their life go in the right direction versus the wrong direction and make much better decisions in the future. I have a lot of trouble processing this one. This poor man, I mean, he's went out to either, like you said, go out to confront them, stop them, whatever, slips, this is the storyline, at least today is that he slips, falls, and is killed. I struggle with that. I struggle with that. Here's my deal too. Like, I mean, Laura Hughes, she's being very magnanimous and compassionate

Starting point is 00:21:10 and offering a lot of grace to the students right now. And at least to Jaden Wallace, who's facing the most serious charges in this right now. I don't know if the other kids could be charged more seriously at some point or more severely because they were there and they were present. I don't know. They were part of the initial kind of thing that set this whole thing

Starting point is 00:21:32 into motion. But, I mean, is it possible down the road? I mean, she could be just in a state of shock right now and she learns more information. Is it possible her feelings change? Yeah. Again, once we see, because if this pickup truck was a newer one, there's like a black box in all cars now, just like we have with airplanes, and it'll show the speed. Now, you can hire an expert have done this to combat what the original assessment is, but generally it'll show the speed. And like I said, there could be a dash cam. And then the ring cams, if you see a car, you know, we've seen these other kinds of stories where a video will show the car going by fast. We don't need technology. We can just see that that was speeding. These are things that will

Starting point is 00:22:17 really kind of get all of us to understand either which direction it went. Is this really like he was going 32 miles an hour, which is still speeding? Or was it 50? I would really like to know how fast he was actually going and was he run over because he slipped or was he run over because he was hit and then run over exactly we don't know we just know what's what was in the initial press release and i think an accident reconstruction and some other information will really tell the story and and when that truck is actually examined um forensically you know was there impact the front of the vehicle we just don't know that we just know the initial information we're getting from a press release and that's it you know that that truck's been towed is sitting in a garage and like

Starting point is 00:23:14 you said it is going to be forensically analyzed and that is part of the accident reconstruction that will occur it's usually done by the state police who came to this incident normally that's who investigates all homicide vehicle homicide cases so there's more to come beyond what we know. Well, this is horrific. Jason Hughes had two sons, a wife, those little boys now are going to are going to grow up without a father because of a senior prank and I am heartbroken for them. It's awful. Meg Strickler, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. A GoFundMe has been set up for Jason Hughes's wife and his sons. At the time of this recording, it has raised more than $200,000. The message on it says, raising funds in memory of Jason Hughes to

Starting point is 00:24:06 assist his family with immediate expenses and a future college fund for his children. Jason's life was a blessing to so many, and his untimely passing will be indescribably difficult for his wife and two young boys for years to come. Please use this opportunity to come alongside them in their time of immediate need and future planning for his children. Jaden Wallace and his friends. Jaden Wallace and his friends. We're released on Bond on Sunday from the Hall County Jail. Wallace's next court date is scheduled for April 1st. And we'll keep an eye on this case and let you know what happens. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube. You can also watch and listen on Spotify. We'll see you back here

Starting point is 00:24:49 next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Student Kills Teacher in Deadly Senior Prank: Sheriff

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