Two people were killed and three, including an infant and a toddler, were injured in a head-on collision Monday, Oct. 26.
Cassidi Autumn Porter, 28, and her boyfriend, Steven Ray Reynolds, 51, were killed in the two-vehicle crash on State Route 212 at approximately 7:20 a.m..
“They were literally in the process today of moving from Daytona Beach to Conyers, and that’s according to Cassidi’s sister,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told The Eatonton Messenger Monday after the collision.
Cassidi Porter’s two sons, ages 9 months and 21 months, and her mother, 51-year-old Alisha Kaye Porter, also of Daytona Beach, were injured and taken to Atrium Health Navicent The Medical Center in Macon for treatment.
Sills said he did not know how seriously the babies were injured, “but they didn’t appear to be life-threatening.” He noted that Alisha Porter’s injuries were more serious. At the newspaper’s presstime Tuesday, Sills said the babies had been released from the hospital and were in the care of their aunt and great-grandmother. Alisha Porter was undergoing more surgery on Tuesday, he said.
The victims were traveling northbound on State Route 212 in a 2025 Hyundai Palisade being driven by Alisha Porter when they were struck head-on by a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, driven by Elijah Brooks Malcom, 19, of Good Hope.
Another vehicle, pulling a boat on a trailer, was stopped in the southbound lane waiting to turn onto Twin Bridges Road.
“He (the driver) was basically waiting for the Hyundai to come by when (Malcom) for whatever reason came around the man who was waiting to turn, and hit the Porters’ car head-on,” Sills said. “And that’s according to three witnesses at the scene.”
The vehicle waiting to turn was not struck in the collision and that driver escaped injury, according to Sills.
Malcom was driven by private vehicle to seek medical treatment for unknown injuries, Sills said.
The sheriff originally had said Malcom would be charged with misdemeanor homicide by vehicle. When questioned again on Tuesday, Sills said Malcom “definitely will be charged with homicide by vehicle, but I need to discuss the degree and other charges with the District Attorney first.”