A 35-year-old Alabama man driving a Ford F-150 allegedly ran a red light and crashed into an SUV carrying a woman and her four children, killing her and three of the kids.
Garrett Cole Nix faces four counts of manslaughter and one count each of first-degree assault, driving under the influence, speeding and running a red light.
Prosecutors accuse him of killing 33-year-old Ashley Dawn Hagood and her three children, Bryant Christopher Ballew, 13, and 7-year-old twins Bryleigh Grace Pledger and Brynleigh Nell Pledger. A 10-year-old boy, Bentley Pledger, survived.
The crash happened shortly after 10:30 a.m. on April 11 at the intersection of State Roads 157 and 24 in Moulton, some 45 miles southwest of Huntsville.
“On April the 11th, 2026, we witnessed one of the most tragic and horrific events imaginable. Four lives were taken needlessly, and family members’ lives were changed forever,” Moulton Police Chief Craig Knight told reporters Monday at a press conference.
Lt. Casey Baker, who led the investigation, said officials initially worried the traffic light may have malfunctioned and caused the crash. Investigators determined, however, that Nix’s light had been red for a “significant period of time before his vehicle entered the intersection.” Several vehicles had already passed through the green light by the time Hagood’s SUV entered the intersection, Baker said.
A Lawrence County grand jury indicted Nix last week, and he turned himself in at the jail on Monday, where he posted bond.
Nix’s attorney James Sturdivant denies his client was under the influence at the time of the crash.
“There is no evidence in this case of impairment. None. Period. End of story,” Sturdivant told local WAFF. “Mr. Nix, like millions of Americans, may have had a recreational use of marijuana three days before, two days before, five days before.”
Sturdivant also said it’s too early to say whether Nix ran the red light.
“No one disputes that this is a horrible, awful tragedy. However, it is an accident,” Sturdivant said, per WAFF. “This case does not belong in criminal court, and it certainly does not belong with a manslaughter charge.”
The victims’ family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Nix.
Hagood’s obituary described her as a “Wonder Woman of a mom.”
“Ashley worked tirelessly to provide for her children, always finding a way to make things happen for them no matter the circumstance,” the obituary said.
Bryant’s obituary called him an “All-American boy.”
“He was a baseball throwing, paintball shooting, motocross riding, hunting & fishing, pickleball obsessed stud,” the obituary reads. “When Bryant found something, he loved, he went all in, full dedication. He wanted to be the best and he had to have the best.”
Bryleigh died at the scene, while her twin sister passed away a few days later at the hospital. Brynleigh was an organ donor.
“We can’t change the life it has taken from us, but hopefully donating her gifts, can keep this unimaginable nightmare from happening to someone else,” her stepmother, Miranda Pledger, wrote on social media, according to AL.com.
Nix’s next court date is slated for Aug. 25.
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