Man Charged with Manslaughter for Deadly 2021 Hit-and-Run in Tuscaloosa County

A Tuscaloosa County man has been jailed after he was indicted and charged with manslaughter and another felony in connection to a deadly hit-and-run in April 2021.

As the Thread reported when it happened, a 44-year-old Tuscaloosa woman named Lavonta Caldwell was killed in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 11 on April 2nd, 2021.

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Police in Tuscaloosa said Caldwell was between Coaling and Cottondale when her vehicle collided with a Chevrolet Silverado and both vehicles tumbled about 20 feet down an offroad ravine.

The woman, Caldwell, was pronounced dead at the scene of the wreck. The Silverado was found empty, but police found a then-39-year-old James Randall Murray at a nearby intersection, and he was taken to a local hospital for treatment of his own injuries.

Now, two and a half years after Caldwell was killed, a grand jury has indicted Murray and he has been charged with manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident with inury, a class B and class C felony respectively.

According to the indictment, Murray "drove his vehicle while voluntarily intoxicated, crossed the median and struck" the vehicle Caldwell was driving.

Murray, a 41-year-old man listed as a Duncanville resident, was placed in the Tuscaloosa County Jail Sunday, where his consolidated bond on the two charges is set at $30,000.

Grand juries convene in private and the evidence presented to them is not public record and the exact details that led to Murray's indictment are not available.

Court records for unrelated arrests also show Randall was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana on separate occasions in 2008 and 2014, charged with boating under the influence in 2014 and charged for driving under the influence in February 2022 - 10 months after the wreck that killed Caldwell.