Parents of man killed in crash want trial, not deportation, for truck driver

A truck driver charged with manslaughter after a crash that killed a newly married couple should appear in criminal court rather than be deported out of the country, the parents of a Springfield man killed in the crash say.

“I think it’s important that the families get answers,” said Elizabeth Carter, the mother of the Springfield man. “I don’t see how justice can be served by not getting answers and finding out everything we possibly can from that night.”

Her son, William “Billy” Carter, 25, was driving with his wife, Jennifer Lynn Lower, 24, when their Subaru collided Nov. 24 with a jackknifed truck stopped on Highway 20 near Bend.

The truck’s driver, Rajinder Kumar, has been charged with manslaughter in connection with their deaths. But federal immigration authorities took Kumar into custody April 22, just a few days after a security bond had been posted on his behalf to secure his release from Deschutes County Jail.

“I was hoping for a fair trial where he’s given an opportunity to defend himself,” Elizabeth Carter said. “I don’t see how I could understand what happened to my son completely without him being given that opportunity, without being able to hear, hopefully from his own lips, what he saw, what happened.”

Carter and her husband, Dennis, who live in Springfield, said they recently received a phone call notifying them Kumar has a deportation hearing scheduled May 13 in Tacoma, Washington. An online ICE database lists Kumar as being detained in Tacoma.

The fatal crash has been cited in statements by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials critical of states offering commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants without legal status. Kumar had been granted a commercial license in California.

“I don’t have an opinion on his immigration status,” Elizabeth Carter said of Kumar. “It’s something I’m not well-educated on.”

In an email last week to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Deschutes County District Attorney Stephen Gunnels said, “We would hope and intend to go forward with the criminal case. That said, federal actions are beyond our control and we have no input into that process.”

Dennis Carter said he thinks the state’s sanctuary laws make it harder for local authorities to work with ICE.

“You’ve got two (agencies) that are working with the same defendant here, and they’re not allowed to talk about it amongst themselves to come to a conclusion,” Dennis Carter said, adding, “their hands are tied in Deschutes County because of the Oregon law.”

Gunnels, in an email Thursday, referred to the state law prohibiting the use of public resources for immigration enforcement: Oregon Revised Statutes 181A.826.

“My reading of (the law) is that we are prohibited from sharing any information with federal immigration authorities under most circumstances,” Gunnels said.

“If we ‘receive a communication or request from a federal agency that relates to immigration enforcement,’ (other than through judicial warrants or subpoenas), we must decline those requests,” he said, quoting from the law. 

“That prohibition includes coordination in order to better effectuate deportation at a later date, i.e., after trial,” Gunnels said.

But such actions by ICE have taken place in other states without sanctuary laws, said Michael Kagan, Joyce Mack professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“It’s very mistaken to think that closer cooperation with ICE would prevent this problem,” Kagan said.

He said that while ICE detentions ahead of trial weren’t invented by President Donald Trump, they’ve become much more widespread in his second term as president as part of “a policy of maximally aggressive immigration arrests and detention.”

“It’s become essentially a routine part of the criminal justice system in many parts of the United States, so that immigrants just don’t face the same criminal justice system as other people,” Kagan said.

Billy and Jenny

In a Nov. 26, 2025, press release, Oregon State Police said dark conditions and “a lack of active emergency warning equipment” were considered a “primary contributor” to the crash, which took place at about 9:30 p.m. Nov. 24. The press release announced Kumar’s arrest.

The Carters declined to share details about what they’ve been told by authorities about what happened on the night of the crash.

“We have information that they’ve given us, but in order to preserve the possibility of a trial, we’re not going to talk about it,” Dennis Carter said.

He also said they were informed when an initial charge was upgraded to manslaughter.

“We were told that there was enough there that the charge was upgraded from criminally negligent homicide, where it started out, to manslaughter in the first degree, and that was after the district attorneys, the grand jury, all of them got together,” he said, adding, “they did explain it to us, why they came to that conclusion.”

Elizabeth Carter said she also would like to speak in court to make a statement, “even if I knew it would make no difference in the world. It would be important just to speak for Billy and Jenny.”

The loss of their son came just after his marriage to a woman they were happy to welcome into their home, as the couple had planned to move in with them as a fallback after plans for an apartment together fell through.

“The last time I saw my son, I was hugging him goodbye at his wedding reception,” Elizabeth Carter said.

She described Billy as “shy and quiet and fiercely loyal.”

Her son met his future wife at a young adults gathering for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“They hit it off. They were the same person in different bodies,” Elizabeth Carter said.

Her son lived with social anxiety, but Jenny could relate, Elizabeth Carter said. For both, faith and family were important, she said. There was also a shared interest in Disney and “Star Wars.”

“She brought out something in him I’d never seen before. It’s like he could not stop smiling around her,” Elizabeth Carter said.

The family attended her University of Oregon graduation ceremony last year, where she had earned a music degree and been a member of the school’s marching band, Elizabeth Carter said.

The couple married Nov. 8 in Portland.

As is common within the LDS faith, two wedding receptions took place for the couple. With Billy’s family, “they had this huge reception here, and it was beautiful,” Elizabeth Carter said.

After a honeymoon at Disneyland, the couple had a reception with Jenny’s family in Idaho, Elizabeth Carter said. 

The crash that took their lives happened only 16 days after their wedding, while the couple was driving back to Springfield after the reception in Idaho.

“We did the funerals just like we did the wedding receptions. First, one here for both of them, and then one in Jenny’s hometown, for both,” Elizabeth Carter said, describing the families as “bonded for life.”

Jenny’s parents offered to have their daughter laid to rest in Oregon, but Elizabeth Carter said she didn’t want them to be a 14-hour drive from their daughter’s gravesite.

“So, we decided to have them cremated instead. But their ashes are mixed together,” Elizabeth Carter said. “So, half are here with my husband, Dennis and I, and half are with Jenny’s parents, Becky and Tom.

“The most important part was that they’d be together wherever they were.”