Two Talawanda grads killed in single-vehicle crash

REILY TWP. — Two young men died after they were ejected from a pickup truck in an early morning crash along Oxford Reily Road Saturday, Jan. 2.

William Cody Wooten, 23, of Reily Twp., was driving his Ford pickup truck northbound at about 2:28 a.m. Saturday, when he apparently lost control after rounding the curve at the McCoy Road intersection, said Butler County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Randy Lambert, who responded to the crash scene.

Wooten and his passenger, 20-year-old James R. Stephenson of Hanover Twp., were pronounced dead at the scene by the Butler County Coroner’s Office.

The pickup, which was traveling northbound on Oxford Reily Road, “rolled multiple times before the vehicle came to rest in a field,” Lambert said. “Both were ejected prior to the vehicle coming to rest.”

Lambert said he believes excessive speed led to the driver losing control. The accident remains under investigation, and it is still undetermined whether there were any other factors in the crash.

Wooten was a 2005 Talawanda High School graduate, and Stephenson graduated in 2007 from Talawanda, where he played varsity baseball. He most recently acted as an assistant coach for the Braves baseball camp, according to the district’s Web site.

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