An Arkansas woman was indicted and arrested this week in connection with the 2017 death of Killeen tow truck driver Scott Bowles -- nearly a year after he was struck and killed while working on I-14 in Harker Heights.
Sybil Warrick was taken into custody in Fort Smith, Ark. Wednesday after a Texas warrant was issued charging her with criminally negligent homicide. She will be extradited back to Bell County.
According to the indictment against Warrick, she failed to vacate the lane closest to Bowles' stationary tow truck, failed to adequately slow down, and drove onto the shoulder of the highway, where she allegedly struck Bowles.
Bowles' wife Stephanie said law enforcement knew Warrick's name and location since the day her husband was killed. And, his family has wondered why it took so long for an arrest to be made.
The Bell County District Attorney's Office was presented with the findings of the Harker Heights Police Department investigation on Nov. 30, 2017. After review, prosecutors requested additional information from police -- specifically, Warrick's vehicle black box. Some may not realize every new vehicle built after Sept. 1, 2014 must have a black box, and many cars built before then had them, too. Black boxes often track data such as speed and use of brakes.
Once the black box data was returned, the case was presented to a Bell County Grand Jury on March 21, 2018, according to the DA's office. But, that Grand Jury never reached a decision. That was because, according to DA Henry Garza, the Grand Jury also requested more information about the case. And, since that other information was not returned before the first Grand Jury session expired, the case was passed along to a second Grand Jury, Garza explained.
"The information requested was acquired after the previous grand jury ended," Garza told Channel 6. "As such, the case was represented to the present grand jury for consideration."
On May 3, the second Grand Jury decided Warrick should be indicted for criminally negligent homicide.
According to law enforcement, a toxicology report was also completed. But, its results were not publicly known.
Stephanie Bowles said she called police every week for most of the last year, asking when charges would be filed.
"The biggest thing was that charges be filed so that the public knew that there are consequences for breaking this law, so that Scott's Death was not in vain," Stephanie told Channel 6 on Thursday.
Since Scott's death, Stephanie has become an advocate for the Move Over/Slow Down law, which requires Texas drivers either vacate the lane closest to stopped emergency vehicles or slow down to 20 mph below the speed limit.
As of Thursday evening, Warrick was still being held in Arkansas without bond awaiting transportation back to Texas.