by Kate Shunney
The driver of one of the trucks involved in a double-fatal crash in early May 2019 has pled no contest to one count of negligent homicide in Morgan County Circuit Court.
Bryce G. Waugh, 18, of Waugh Road in Berkeley Springs entered the plea during a January 23 hearing before Circuit Judge Debra McLaughlin.
He will be sentenced on February 20.
Waugh had been indicted in September by a Morgan County Grand Jury on two counts of negligent homicide – one for each of the two people who died in the May 3 crash – and for passing in a no-passing zone, driving left of center and having no seatbelt on at the time of the accident.
According to Morgan County Sheriff K.C. Bohrer, Waugh was travelling south on U.S. 522 in the area of Brosius Hill with his girlfriend Lexus Miller in the passenger seat when he left his travel lane and started driving in the northbound lane of U.S. 522.
Waugh’s pickup truck hit a truck head-on. The driver of that truck, Charles Nutwell, 47, of Needmore, Pa. died a day later of injuries sustained in the collision. Miller, 18, was pronounced deceased at the accident scene.
Waugh was hospitalized with injuries after the accident.
Prosecutor Dan James said toxicology reports from the hospital where Waugh was treated “indicate that no drugs or alcohol were present” in his system.
“Additionally, there was no other evidence that drugs or alcohol were a factor for anyone involved in the accident,” James said.
Sheriff Bohrer was assisted in his investigation by Cpl. Scott Lemon and the West Virginia State Police.
