Background: The crash scene in Clay County, West Virginia (WCHS/YouTube). Inset left: James Edward Neal Jr. (West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation). Inset right, from left: James Edward Neal III and Zayden Andrew Hurley (Wilson Smith Funeral Home).
A West Virginia father was driving home from a football event with his two sons when his SUV slammed into a parked construction vehicle, a crash that killed both boys, authorities said.
James Edward Neal Jr., 34, is now charged with two counts of child neglect resulting in death in connection with the deaths of 7-year-old James Edward Neal III and 13-year-old Zayden Andrew Hurley, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
Neal is also facing two counts of DUI with deliberate disregard for the safety of others causing death, one count of DUI causing serious bodily injury, and one count of child neglect creating risk of serious bodily injury or death. He remains jailed at the Central Regional Jail and Correctional Facility on a $1 million bond.
The fatal Clay County crash happened on Aug. 22 as Neal was behind the wheel of an SUV carrying three children: James, Zayden, and a 14-year-old boy who was a friend of his sons. The group had been returning from a football event, Charleston ABC affiliate WCHS reported.
Investigators said Neal crashed into a parked front-end loader operated by the West Virginia Department of Highways. West Virginia State Police, firefighters and emergency medical crews responded to the scene, where James and Zayden were found dead.
The third child was taken to a local hospital “in critical condition,” according to a GoFundMe created to support him. The fundraiser said the force of the impact and the boy’s seat belt appeared to have “cut [him] in half on the inside.”
“His abs were split open, which is the wall that holds everything in place, so when it split, his organs pushed forward,” the fundraiser stated. “So the inside of his stomach is split open.”
The boy was reportedly placed on a ventilator for two days and had to have multiple surgeries. “The driver of the car didn’t have car insurance,” so the expenses will fall on the child’s father, per the GoFundMe.
“Mr. Neal crashed his vehicle into stationary pieces of DOH equipment in a straight stretch of the road,” a criminal complaint filed in the case and reviewed by the regional TV station stated. It added that investigators learned the defendant had used meth in the past, but field sobriety tests were not administered “due to the emotionally charged nature of the scene” and Neal “exhibiting signs of head trauma.”
Neal reportedly conceded that he relapsed after almost five years of sobriety, admitting he was using meth and marijuana. Neal said he fell asleep at the wheel, and investigators noticed that he appeared disoriented, with sweating and body tremors, troopers said.
Once the defendant learned his two sons were killed, he apparently made jokes with an acquaintance about lacerations to his hands.
Neal himself was taken to a regional hospital to be treated and have his blood drawn, and he allegedly tested positive for meth and THC. He was arrested and booked in jail.
The joint obituary for James and Zayden states they “both had personalities larger than life.” They “shared the same passion for football with dreams of becoming NFL players one day” and “were kind, loving and funny kids.”
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