'I was national news': Trumper explains the reason he killed a woman with a pick-up truck

Shane Jason Woods is on trial for murder after driving his GMC Sierra into the oncoming lane and hitting the vehicle of 35-year-old Illinois woman Lauren Wegner. But Woods says he was pushed to reckless behavior that ended Wegner’s life by the hardship of his arrest for assaulting two people at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Woods said his 2021 arrest led to “instant, instant, instant depression.”

“I was national news,” Woods told a Springfield, Illinois court.

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Woods has attempted suicide twice before, and said his arrest over the riot ended his successful heating and air conditioning business. He also claims he received hate mail and endured online harassment, and his children were victims of bullying. Records show he was legally inebriated when he fled a traffic stop and drove the wrong-way onto I-55 at 101 mph.

“I would have rather been dead than alive,” Woods testified.

Prosecutors have accused Woods of driving the wrong way onto Interstate 55 and causing the fiery crash on Nov. 8, 2022, killing Wegner and injuring an additional Illinois couple. Woods was already facing the possibility of nine years in prison for assaulting a law enforcement officer and a cameraman at the Capitol in 2021.

Attorneys asked Woods Wednesday whether he’d become an “ardent supporter of President Trump.”

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Woods, a member of the Proud Boys, replied, “I would say an ardent supporter of Americans.”

“Us proud boys are his civilian militia in case violence starts,” Woods allegedly wrote in a text message to a friend. “[Trump] knows we’re on his side.”

Read the full Chicago Sun Times article here.