An Ohio truck driver who killed a married couple and their one-year-old son in a devastating highway crash has been sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison. The family’s deaths were later featured in a controversial Republican campaign advertisement.
Modou Ngom, 51, received the maximum sentence for causing a fiery nine-vehicle pileup that claimed the lives of Luke Soposki, 37, his wife, Lynnea, 36, and their baby son, Logan.
Ngom became a U.S. citizen in 2015. Ohio investigators, however, allege that he secured citizenship using a fraudulent identity after entering the country in the 1990s.
Thursday’s sentencing prompted an emotional scene in court as relatives accused Ngom of showing no remorse. The judge said the crash had destroyed an entire family.
‘You wiped out an entire family,’ Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Marianne Hemmeter told Ngom. ‘And this court can’t make it better.’
The tragedy occurred on April 11, when Ngom was driving his Freightliner semitruck north of Columbus on Interstate 71. Traffic had slowed near a construction zone, but investigators said Ngom failed to reduce his speed.
His truck slammed into the vehicles ahead, setting off a chain-reaction crash involving nine cars and trucks.
Surveillance video captured the white semitruck barreling into the backed-up traffic. At least one vehicle erupted in flames on impact.
Ngom’s truck then crossed the median, forcing two additional vehicles out of its path.
Truck driver Modou Ngom, 51, has been sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison after causing a horrific nine-vehicle crash that killed a young couple and their baby son in Ohio
Lynnea Soposki, 36, her husband Luke, 37, and their one-year-old son Logan were killed when Ngom’s semitruck plowed into traffic on Interstate 71 north of Columbus on April 11
The Soposkis were traveling together in their pickup truck when they were killed. Five other people suffered serious injuries in the crash.
Lynnea worked as a veterinarian at Muirfield Animal Hospital in Dublin, Ohio. Luke was an analytical chemist.
Their deaths left loved ones struggling to process the loss of three members of a young family in a matter of minutes.
During the sentencing hearing, Lynnea’s brother, Jesse Mallen, confronted Ngom and accused him of being distracted by a tablet before the collision.
‘You were playing with a damn tablet while aiming a 40-ton weapon straight at the family,’ he told the court.
Mallen also challenged what he described as the truck driver’s apparent lack of remorse.
‘Your poor family is pouring their hearts out, awash with remorse and I haven’t seen an ounce from you – have you no shame for what you did?’ he demanded.
Investigators with the Ohio State Highway Patrol had previously said they found no evidence that Ngom was using a phone or tablet when the crash occurred.
Horrifying footage shows vehicles engulfed in flames after Ngom’s truck slammed into traffic, killing the family of three and leaving five other people seriously injured
Luke and Lynnea Soposki smile alongside their red-haired son Logan in a treasured family photograph, months before all three lost their lives in the devastating highway crash
Ngom was convicted in September after a four-day trial on three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and five counts of vehicular assault.
The crash’s impact has extended well beyond the three fatalities.
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One survivor has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that her injuries are permanent and so severe that she can no longer care for herself independently or perform basic daily tasks.
The Soposki family estate has also filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Ngom.
The family’s ordeal took another painful turn when photographs of Luke, Lynnea and Logan appeared in a Republican campaign advertisement attacking former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown.
The commercial, titled ‘Dangerous for Ohio,’ was funded by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and authorized by Republican Senator Jon Husted’s campaign before a closely contested Senate race.
‘Sherrod Brown opened our borders to dangerous illegals – the consequences were deadly,’ the narrator said.
The ad then showed images of Ngom and the Soposki family alongside graphic footage of the fatal crash.
An old photograph shows Lynnea Soposki embracing her brother, Jesse Mallen, who condemned the use of the family’s tragedy in a Republican political attack advertisement
Lynnea Soposki, second from right, is pictured with relatives in happier times, before the crash that killed her, her husband and their baby boy
Lynnea was a much-loved veterinarian at Muirfield Animal Hospital in Ohio, where colleagues remembered her as an extraordinary doctor and compassionate caregiver following her death
Mallen said he was appalled to learn that photographs of his sister, brother-in-law and nephew had been used in a political campaign without the family’s consent.
‘Our grief is not raw material for a campaign,’ he wrote after the advertisement began airing across Ohio.
Mallen said he emailed Husted’s campaign and sent a letter by certified mail, asking that the family’s photograph be removed.
‘What we all want is to be able to grieve in peace and privacy,’ he said. ‘For our family to be used in such a classless way by a politician, especially without being consulted.’
The advertisement ran for at least 16 days, with an estimated $1 million spent on the campaign, before it was withdrawn.
A version of the ad remained online and drew more than five million views.
For the Soposki family, the political dispute compounded an already unbearable loss.
Lynnea’s brother Jesse Mallen condemned the political advertisement featuring photos of his sister’s family, saying relatives had never given permission for their loved ones to be used
Republican Senator Jon Husted’s campaign authorized the controversial ad which used images of the dead family to attack Democratic rival Sherrod Brown over immigration policy
‘Just unbelievable what these politicians will do,’ Luke’s father, Joseph Soposki, wrote after seeing the commercial. ‘Absolutely no compassion for the family.’
The political controversy focused on Ngom’s immigration history.
Ohio officials said Ngom entered the United States in the 1990s and later used different names and birth dates to obtain identification documents and driver’s licenses.
The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that Ngom became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2015.
He has not been charged with an immigration-related offense. Independent fact-checkers also found no evidence directly connecting Brown’s voting record to the deadly crash.
