Semi driver charged in crash that killed 3-year-old headed to trial

Semi driver charged in crash that killed 3-year-old headed to trial


FLINT, MI - A Texas truck driver is headed to trial in connected with a crash that killed a 3-year-old girl and her father on Interstate 69.

Dalibot Sakotic, 35, was bound over to circuit court by Genesee District Judge Vikki Bayeh Haley on Friday, Aug. 10, on two counts of manslaughter with a motor vehicle and a single count of reckless driving causing serious impairment, according to court records.

The manslaughter charges are 15-year felonies while the reckless driving is a 5-year felony.


Dalibot Sakotic
"Our position was it was an accident," said Sakotic's attorney Frank J. Manley. "My client was doing everything possible to avoid a collision. It was certainly tragic, but it's not criminal."

Sakotic, of Wylie, Texas, was driving a semitrailer westbound on I-69 near Bristol Road when police say he rear-ended a Chevrolet Malibu carrying a Clio man and Cody, Brittany and Aria Thomas - a Davison family of three.

When police and emergency responders arrived on the scene, they found the rear end of the Malibu smashed and partially under the semi. Police previously said both the truck and Malibu were found in a ditch on the north side of the highway.

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Brittany, 27, survived with non-life-threatening injuries.

Positioned in the Malibu's back seat, her husband, Cody, and 3-year-old daughter, Aria, were fatally injured.

A new court date for Sakotic has not yet been set, Manley said.