Trial for truck driver in Taylor crash to be moved out of Grant County

MARION, Ind. -- A judge has decided to move the trial of a truck driver accused of causing a highway crash that killed a Taylor University employee and four students, including one who was misidentified for weeks.\n"The publicity has been excessive and emotionally charged and the volume and reach of the publicity has been enormous," Grant County Superior Court Judge Randall Johnson wrote in his order Wednesday.\nThe judge asked attorneys to select a new county for the trial in the next three days. He asked them to avoid neighboring counties and those that include the cities of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.\nRobert Spencer was arrested Sept. 1 on five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness causing serious bodily injury, all stemming from the April 26 crash.\nThe crash drew national attention five weeks later when authorities announced they had mixed up the identifications of 19-year-old Whitney Cerak of Gaylord, Mich., who was severely injured but survived, and 22-year-old Laura VanRyn of Caledonia, Mich., who had been killed.\nAuthorities say Spencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, fell asleep at the wheel of his semitrailer and slammed into the Taylor van on Interstate 69 midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.\nA police investigation showed Spencer had driven at least nine hours more than what is allowed under federal rules.