A Lenexa man will serve 60 days in jail and three years of probation for a DUI crash that seriously injured another person when he drove the wrong way on I-435.
On Jan. 17, Toure L. Biggins was sentenced in Johnson County District for one count of DUI aggravated battery/great harm in connection to a crash that happened in the early morning hours of St. Patrick’s Day, March 18, 2023.
Biggins’s sentence includes 36 months of probation with 60 days of “shock” jail time and 60 days on house arrest. In addition, he will have to serve 200 hours of community service.
Biggins will also be screened for acceptance into the court’s therapeutic community, a residential treatment program for people with criminal histories and substance use disorders.
Judge Christina Dunn Gyllenborg handed down the sentence.
The crash occurred in 2023
The crash occurred just after 12:20 a.m. on March 18, 2023, on the westbound side of I-435, just west of I-35, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol report of the incident.
Biggins was driving a vehicle eastbound on the highway, in the wrong direction, when it struck another vehicle head-on that was going westbound, the report stated.
The driver of the second vehicle, Sarah Morrison, of Lawrence, sustained serious injuries and was hospitalized, according to the incident report.
Biggins also suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized.
Investigators took a blood sample of Biggins at the hospital, which showed his blood alcohol content at .291, well over the legal limit of 0.08 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
The victim suffered serious injuries
In a statement emailed to the Post in 2024, Morrison said her injuries were so severe that investigators initially thought she was dead the night of the crash.
She suffered traumatic brain injury, including a contusion and lacerations, a broken leg, a broken ankle, a pulmonary contusion and a severe laceration from the force of her seatbelt cutting into her body, she said.
In addition, she spent 30 days in the hospital, undergoing two major surgeries, and was unable to walk for 17 weeks.
While she was in the hospital, her sister launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $3,000 for Morrison’s medical bills.
Since the crash, Morrison is able to drive again and resumed her work as an attorney, according to the Lawrence Journal-World.
Throughout the case, MOrrison said she wanted justice to be served.
“I want to make sure that the sentence and the punishment is appropriate for what happened. Not only to give me justice but also to make sure that this individual learns from this,” Morrison told the Lawrence Journal-World.
Morrison could not be reached for comment by the Post following Biggins’s sentencing.
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