Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendant now accused of fatal DUI on I-55 downstate

A downstate man who pleaded guilty in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack is now facing a murder charge after he allegedly caused a fatal, alcohol-fueled wrong-way traffic wreck near Springfield in what has been characterized by police as a suicide attempt.

Shane Jason Woods, 44, of Auburn, was charged in an indictment returned by a Sangamon County grand jury with first-degree murder, according to prosecutors.

He’d previously been held on $2 million bail on charges of reckless homicide, aggravated DUI causing death, and DUI, following the Nov. 8 wreck, which happened on southbound I-55 in Springfield, according to an Illinois State Police report.

Lauren A. Wegner, 35, was killed in the crash. Wegner was a Skokie native from North Carolina, according to authorities.

Woods is anticipating a sentence in the Jan. 6 Capitol unrest, which may have been motive for the allegedly intentional crash, the report said.

Federal prosecutors in Washington filed a motion to revoke Woods’ bond on Wednesday, citing the first-degree murder charge, court records show.

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Woods, one of a string of Illinois residents to be charged with participating in the Capitol unrest, was accused of assaulting members of the media and tripping a police officer who was running from bear spray during the mob’s attempt to stop the verification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year and was scheduled to be sentenced in January in U.S. District Court in Washington. Federal guidelines called for a sentence of 33 to 41 months, court records show.

Woods had been free on bond pending that hearing. On the evening of the crash, state troopers were called to a vehicle on fire with someone trapped inside, a police report said. Just prior to the crash, a trooper had pulled over a black 2018 GMC pickup on I-55 and the trooper had “detected the odor of alcoholic beverage” coming from Woods, the report said.

That was when Woods “fled the traffic stop” and began driving north in the southbound lanes, the report said. He allegedly plowed through an exit ramp, causing a multivehicle crash, according to the report.

The wreck left Wegner dead in one vehicle, injured two occupants in another vehicle and also injured Woods, the report said.

A trooper later went to the hospital and identified Woods as the driver of the “at-fault vehicle,” while Woods was lying on a hospital bed. Testing allegedly revealed Woods was intoxicated at the time, according to police.

At some point a nurse asked visitors to leave, the report stated, but before they did, the trooper who was still in the doorway of Woods’ room allegedly overhead Woods telling a woman visiting him that he had intended to crash his vehicle into a semitrailer, the report said.