Chris Soules has struck a plea deal after his involvement in a car crash in Aurora, Iowa, last April that left one man dead.
Chris Soules has struck a plea deal after his involvement in a car crash in Aurora, Iowa, last April that left one man dead.
According to court documents obtained by ET, the 37-year-old former Bachelor star filed a written guilty plea in Buchanan County on Tuesday to a lesser charge of Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Serious Injury -- an aggravated misdemeanor. Soules was originally charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a class D felony, which he pleaded not guilty to last May.
The aggravated misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of jail time of no more than two years and/or a fine of not more than $6,250, and a minimum penalty of a fine of $625 along with a suspended jail sentence or a deferred judgment.
He will be sentenced on Jan. 8, 2019.
Soules was arrested on April 24, 2017, after police alleged that he fled the scene of the car collision before officers arrived. The Iowa State Patrol crash report claims that he was driving a Chevy pickup truck when he rear-ended a John Deere tractor trailer. The person driving the tractor trailer, later identified as 66-year-old farmer Kenneth Mosher, was taken in an ambulance to the hospital, where he died.
His rep released a statement to ET following his release from jail, noting that the reality star was "devastated" following the fatal crash.
"Chris Soules was involved in an accident on Monday evening, April 24, in a rural part of Iowa near his home," the statement read. "He was devastated to learn that Kenneth Mosher, the other person in the accident, passed away. His thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Mosher's family.”
Last September, Soules filed a motion to dismiss all charges in his felony hit and run case. In court documents obtained by ET, one of his lawyers, Gina Messamer, argued that while Soules was required to return to the scene of the crash by law, he did all he could before leaving the scene.
“Mr. Soules fully satisfied the purposes of the statute by calling 911, giving his name to dispatch, administering CPR to Mr. Mosher, and staying on the scene until emergency responders arrived," Messamer said in the motion. "Though Mr. Soules was shaken after the accident, he did everything in his power to resuscitate Mr. Mosher. Mr. Soules interacted with several other responders whom he recognized from his small community and at no point did he attempt to obfuscate his identity."
However, in early January, a judge denied Soules' motion to dismiss the case against him.
For more on the fatal car crash, watch the video below:
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