Man charged with DWI months after Independence crash killed ‘incredible’ 19-year-old
The morning before Mason Sanders died in a three-vehicle crash in Independence could’ve been written in one of the romance novels she loved to read.
Her boyfriend woke her around 5 in the morning that April day, so they could go for a drive, watch the sunrise and slow dance together. She took a video to remember the happy moment.
They grabbed lunch with his sister and went home before she left for her shift as a manager at Andy’s Frozen Custard. But Sanders never made it to work that day.
The allegedly impaired driver who took her life was finally charged this week, nearly seven months later.
Tuesday, prosecutors charged Eric D. Smith with driving while intoxicated resulting in the death of another person. A warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest, and he will be held on a $150,000 bond.
‘More than just being proud’
Jace Sanders moved his family to Independence about a year ago to open a new Merchant Square Antique Marketplace, a chain featuring local antique and craft vendors that started in Arizona.
He worked for Merchant Square in Arizona for around 15 years, and at age 12, his daughter Mason started helping at the store. Before they moved to Missouri, she helped run the American Way Smokehouse, a BBQ restaurant inside the vintage store. She hoped to one day do the same at the Independence location.
It was a fitting goal for a young woman who was a great manager and loved working in food service, according to her father. One day, she even hoped to combine her love of books and food by opening a coffee shop, he said.
But in the meantime, she took on various management roles in food service, from working as an assistant manager at Andy’s Frozen Custard on Noland Road to helping open an Auntie Anne’s at the new Kansas City International terminal. In her spare time, she helped her father tear up floors, paint and train staff at Merchant Square, which is still adorned by the signs and murals she meticulously painted using a projector and scissor lift.
Mason’s dreams extended beyond business, as well.
After dealing with anxiety and depression that was particularly bad in her teen years, she took some psychology classes, and told her dad she wanted to someday balance owning a private practice devoted to therapy alongside the book-filled coffee shop of her dreams.
Three months before she died, Mason closed on a house in Independence, Jace Sanders said. It was yet another goal of hers: to build credit and own a home by the time she was 20.
She had painted it, put in new floors and collected a shelf filled with around 100 books numbered and wrapped in paper to hide their titles, so that every new read could be a surprise. When the family started cleaning her home, they found she had unwrapped about 35 of the books already.
Mason would often get through about two books a week, and loved psychological thrillers and young adult romance.
Before starting as a manager at Andy’s, Mason, her parents and younger brother traveled back to Arizona to see her three older brothers, who decided not to move with their parents to Missouri. The trip was the last time all the siblings, their significant others and their parents were together.
At one point, Jace goaded everyone to take a group photo. Mason and some of the other kids objected because they weren’t dressed nicely. Looking back, he’s grateful he got one last family photo.
“I think it’s helped us a lot, having that memory so close,” he said.
On that vacation, Jace recalled noticing how much Mason and all of his kids had grown. He snapped a photo on the bus of Mason smiling while watching her brother and boyfriend bicker. He thought about how happy she looked, especially compared to how down she had felt just a few years before.
“I didn’t know that being a dad would include those feelings,” Jace said. “It’s more than just being proud of her. I was sitting in awe of how incredible she is.”
The crash
Independence officers responded around 1:07 p.m. on April 22 to the crash in the area of Truman Road and Brookside Avenue.
Smith was allegedly driving eastbound on Truman in a 2016 GMC Yukon, when he swerved to try to avoid hitting a 2013 Jeep Wrangler that had stopped in traffic. The maneuver caused the GMC to hit the rear driver’s side of the Jeep, cross into westbound traffic and run over the top of Mason’s 2015 Toyota Corolla.
Mason died of her injuries at the scene.
At Centerpoint Hospital, where Smith was treated for minor injuries, he allegedly told officers he had been drinking and showed signs of impairment, according to a probable cause statement.
A blood test returned in June showed Smith had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.084 and tested positive for cocaine and other substances, the probable cause statement said.
Smith’s GMC had allegedly been traveling between 66 and 68 mph in a 35 mph zone.
Half a second before the impact with the Jeep, he applied his brakes and swerved left, slowing to about 57 mph when the initial crash occurred.
‘Justice can take its course’
Later that day, a friend and co-worker at Andy’s called Jace, asking if something was wrong. Mason was a few hours late for work and wasn’t answering her phone.
He jumped in the car and called his wife and son, who found her location on Truman Road using Live360. When Jace called 911, they said there was a situation in that area and asked him questions but didn’t give further information.
He and his wife and son headed to the area from separate directions. They didn’t yet know about the crash and had no idea what to expect.
Eventually, his wife made it to the accident scene, finding it barricaded by officers. She called Jace to tell him their only daughter was gone.
An officer at the scene couldn’t tell the family any information about the driver who hit their daughter, but promised to get justice for Mason.
Jace saw the officer again on the one month anniversary of his daughter’s death.
He was speeding on his way to a counseling appointment — a regimen he started to help cope with the loss of Mason — when the same officer pulled him over.
It was easy for the officer to recognize Jace’s vehicle. After Mason died, he put a green cartoon dinosaur sticker on his truck that read “all my friends are dead” to match the one on her Toyota. At the time, the officer had no updates, but he let Jace go without a ticket.
They learned in August that the case had been sent to the prosecutor’s office. For months, the family heard nothing. Jace felt he owed it to his daughter to make sure the driver who took her life faced consequences.
“I’d like to not worry about it,” he said. “And justice can take its course.”
For months after the crash, he found comfort watching accidents on reality crime shows, not for the crashes themselves, but to see other people in similar situations be arrested at the scene.
He didn’t understand why the driver who took his daughter’s life got to go home that night and for months after that.
On Friday, someone at the prosecutor’s office called Jace to let him know they’d been working on the case and would charge a suspect soon.
By Tuesday, Smith was finally charged and is being held on a $150,000 cash bond. Jace was told he had been arrested in Springfield and would be brought back to Independence.
“It’s comforting to know that he’s off the streets,” Jace said, “and that’s there’s somebody else thinking about (our daughter) other than us.”
