True Crime
Juab County charged Christine Chao with automobile homicide in a fatal I-15 crash near Levan.
Chao, 44, of California, is charged with second-degree felony text messaging or email automobile homicide in a June 12, 2026, three-vehicle crash on I-15 near Levan, where traffic was slowing for construction. Passenger Scott LaVar Lichfield, 66, of Fillmore, died, Gephardt Daily reported, citing the Utah Highway Patrol.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
This count rests on charging documents, not on a trial: officers' notes that Chao said she was at fault, the lack of brake marks, and a warrant search that found an adult website opened less than two minutes before the crash. KUTV and Gephardt Daily do not agree on whether Scott LaVar Lichfield died at a hospital or at the scene. What happens next is a court fight over those documents.
The Juab County Attorney has charged Christine Chao, 44, of California, with text messaging or email automobile homicide, a second-degree felony, Gephardt Daily reported Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. KUTV reported the same count. The crash was June 12, 2026, on I-15 near Levan, in Juab County, where traffic was slowing for construction, both outlets reported.
Charging documents say two vehicles were traveling more slowly when a vehicle driven by Chao struck the rearmost one and sent it into the vehicle ahead, and that all three then left the road, Gephardt Daily reported, quoting the county attorney's statement. KUTV reported the same sequence from the charging documents. After the crash, Chao told officers she was at fault, and officers did not see brake marks that would show she slowed down, both outlets reported, citing those documents.
Investigators seized her phone and searched it under a warrant, KUTV and Gephardt Daily reported. The charging documents say that search showed she had accessed an adult website less than two minutes before the crash, and that the site is commonly used to view pornographic videos, Gephardt Daily reported. KUTV described the same finding as a website known for pornographic videos. That is an allegation in a filing about what the phone showed. It is not a finding that the page caused the crash.
The person who died was a passenger, Scott LaVar Lichfield, 66, of Fillmore, Gephardt Daily reported, citing an earlier Utah Highway Patrol statement. KUTV did not name him and reported that a passenger in the rearmost car was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later died. Gephardt Daily, quoting the court document, reported a passenger was observed to be in critical condition and was later pronounced dead at the scene. The two accounts do not match on where he died. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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