Ball pleads not guilty in 2025 crash that claimed three lives

By SUSAN SHARP

CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN. (WLAF)- A 2025 car accident resulted in three deaths, four victims and a 12 count indictment that includes multiple counts of homicide for the driver alleged to have caused it all.

Last month, a Campbell County Grand Jury returned a 12 count indictment against Michael Ball, a Tennessee resident. On Monday, in criminal court, he pleaded not guilty. His next court date Dec. 7.

Ball is alleged to have been driving under the influence on the night of Jan. 16, 2025, when he struck an SUV setting off a tragic chain of events. When police arrived at the scene, they saw a pickup truck in the “center of I-75 north,” the arrest warrant said. A tractor trailer was “overturned on its side” and “was on top of another unidentified vehicle.”

As officers investigated the accident, they learned Ball was driving his 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 southbound on the northbound side of I-75 when he allegedly had a head on collision with a 2021 Volkswagen carrying two women, crash records indicate. Lisa Kay Ooten, 30, was pregnant when she was ejected through a side window of the SUV. The injuries sustained from this were fatal, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol report.

The driver, Kayla Dutton, 29, was also ejected from the SUV. An 18- wheeler, driven by Andriy Galushka, was traveling northbound on I-75 when he swerved in an attempt to avoid Ball’s improperly situated truck, court records said. Galushka’s efforts were in vain, because the tractor trailer left “the roadway and overturned on top of the Volkswagen SUV,” according to court records. Medical personnel at the crash site confirmed the deaths of Dutton, Ooten and her unborn child.

When questioned by THP, Ball allegedly was unable to describe what had happened, court records said. He allegedly and repeatedly continued to tell police he was “struggling,” the report said. Trooper Michael McElory said in his report he could smell alcohol on Ball as he questioned him. Ball refused medical care telling THP he wasn’t injured.

As he was questioned, Ball told police he “had too much” to drink quantifying that meant “maybe five beers after dinner.” Blood tests would later show a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of .20.

Ball was given a series of field sobriety tests, which he couldn’t pass and resulted in his arrest, the report said.

When the grand jury convened last week, it heard testimony about the events of that night. A 12 count indictment was returned alleging Ball had been under the influence when he drove into the SUV disabling it on the interstate. The location of his truck and the tractor trailer’s inability to avoid either vehicle resulted in Galushka being placed in harm’s way and made him a party to the crash. It was also revealed Ball had a 2005 DUI conviction in Michigan, according to court records.

Ball was indicted on three counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication, three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, three counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness, felony reckless endangerment, DUI and first offense DUI Per Se. DUI Per Se means the suspect’s BAC was over. 08, under Tennessee law.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 9/2/2026-6AM)