Suspect says 'God told me to do it' after fatal crash

MARSHFIELD, Mo. -- A Missouri tractor-trailer driver accused of crashing into a pickup truck and killing two people told investigators "God told me to do it," according to court documents.

Adam Housley, 33, of Mountain Grove was charged Thursday with two counts of second-degree murder in the crash a day earlier that killed Tisha Briggs, 48, and Leo Walker, 47.

According to a probable-cause statement, a witness told investigators Housley was looking at his cellphone and didn't hit the brakes before crashing into the back of the victims' pickup truck as it sat at a red light on U.S. 60 in the southwest Missouri town of Seymour.

Troopers said the vehicle was pushed into the back of another tractor-trailer.

Briggs, Walker and a dog also in the pickup were pronounced dead at the scene.

Neither truck driver was injured.

The couple was moving to West Plains, Missouri, after buying some property there, according to the Holman Howe Funeral Home in Seymour, about 200 miles southeast of Kansas City, Missouri.

According to the document, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper, a Webster County sheriff's deputy and a Seymour police officer at the scene said they heard Housley say, "God told me to do it," and "it's my destiny." He also told a deputy, "God wants you to shoot me; God wants you to kill me."

Troopers read Housley his rights and asked him to do field sobriety tests. The statement said a trooper noticed "his eyes to be watery and glassy and his pupils to be constricted."

A breath test didn't detect the presence of alcohol. A blood sample also was taken and sent to the state crime lab for testing.

During later questioning, Housley said the truck wouldn't slow down when he hit the brakes. An hour later, he told investigators God talks to him "all the time" and he was "ready to go to Heaven," the statement said.

Prosecutors said in a bond request Housley "made statements to family indicating he has been homicidal," and Housley's "acts show a disregard for human life and in no way reflected that his acts were accidental."

Bond is set at $750,000. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.