Family of Johnson County teen killed in crash wants trial. Why is DA making a deal?
_fitted.jpeg "Will Ensley, a standout swimmer at Shawnee Mission Northwest High school, died last year after a traffic crash along Metcalf Avenue at West 115th Street. Just weeks from starting his senior year, Will was stopped at a traffic light when a dump truck slammed into him, triggering a nine-car pileup.")
This was the week Randall Ensley should have been moving his youngest son into college, where the determined teen planned to continue his swimming career.
But instead of helping Will take a step into his future, Ensley had been at his laptop trying to put into words the pain and loss his family has felt this past year. All since that July day last summer when a dump truck rammed into the Shawnee Mission Northwest student’s truck, ultimately killing him.
On Thursday afternoon, during a scheduled Johnson County court hearing where Darrin Boomershine, of Independence, was expected to face a judge regarding vehicular homicide and other charges, Ensley was prepared to read those words. To be the voice for his son who never reached his 18th birthday.
“It’s all about trying to get some sort of justice for Will,” Ensley said.
But the justice won’t come from a jury like the family had always hoped. Not long after prosecutors charged Boomershine in December, talk turned to a possible plea. Something the family never wanted.
What they did want, Ensley said, is to “have his crime see the light of day and have him judged appropriately.”
“No jury has looked at it, the information is not public,” Ensley said. “What he did, how he did it, none of that, and all of that would have come out, of course, in court, in a trial. So it is frustrating.
“The plea agreement does not feel just at all.”
In recent months, Ensley and his family have written eight letters to prosecutors saying just that. And he and his wife have met with the prosecutor in the case twice.
When contacted about the family’s wishes, and the plea hearing set for Thursday, Melody Webb, a spokeswoman for the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office said, “We are unable to comment about a pending case.”
It isn’t clear what is included in the plea.
And that may not be known for awhile. The hearing Thursday — where Ensley was prepared to speak — was continued.
“We don’t have a formal plea reached at this time,” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Gregory Benefiel told the judge Thursday.
A scheduling conference was set for Sept. 19.
Prosecutors charged Boomershine in December with one count each of vehicular homicide, no vehicle registration and violation of the motor carrier safety rules and regulations, all misdemeanors. Boomershine has a commercial driver’s license to operate the dump truck, but according to court records, his medical certificate had expired at the time of the crash and the dump truck was “not properly registered.”
He was also charged with a traffic violation of following another vehicle too closely for an earlier incident that occurred the month before the fatal crash.
Will died just weeks before he would have started his senior year. He was a captain of the Shawnee Mission Northwest swim team, helped manage the girl’s squad and was known by his coach as a leader who gave the sport all he had and did whatever was asked of him.
“They don’t make any high school boys like that anymore,” said Ryan Lee, Shawnee Mission Northwest’s head coach who taught Will in the pool from the time he was 9 years old and could barely swim.
A year after Will’s death, Lee still breaks down as he talks about the teen who was striving to win a state championship in the 100-yard breaststroke as a senior.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of Will,” said Lee, as he began to choke up. “He was at the pinnacle of doing great things. … I’m just incredibly sad about what could have been.”
As Will’s family approaches Thursday’s hearing, which will be the first time they see Boomershine in person, they are shaken by the senselessness of the crash.
“It absolutely didn’t need to happen,” Ensley said. “It was a perfect day. No weather conditions, no moisture, no visibility issues, no nothing.
“It was just a reckless driver that ended it for him.”
Will’s mom said her late son is the first thing she thinks about in the morning and the last thing she thinks about at night.
“There is no reason he shouldn’t be here with us today,” Sharon Ensley said. “He had such a bright future. It breaks my heart that we won’t get the chance to see him live out his dreams.”
A nine-car pileup
Will was headed to swim practice the morning of July 26, 2023. He had joined the Empire KC Swim Club to get in additional training and competition for his senior swim season.
The goal: to win state in the 100-yard breaststroke, his best event.
Will competed at state all three years of high school, making a big jump his junior year when he individually made the podium, placing seventh in the breaststroke.
“He was really taking the stuff that he was doing on his own to the next level,” said Lee. “He was adding a lot more muscle, getting more explosive, just racing hard in practice. I knew something special was on the horizon.”
The previous weekend, he swam six races at an area competition. In each of those, he clocked a personal best, his dad said.
“He was having a good summer,” Ensley said.
In an instant, all of that vanished.
Driving his late grandfather’s pickup truck, one he and his friends would sit on the bed of after school, the teen stopped at a traffic light on Metcalf Avenue at West 115th Street in Overland Park. He was behind a line of vehicles.
Driving a Kenworth dump truck south on Metcalf, Boomershine rammed into Will’s truck from behind, triggering a nine-car pileup. Court records show that Boomershine was traveling 38 mph before the 6:45 a.m. collision.
The affidavit detailing the charges said Boomershine spoke to officers after the crash. Police asked him what happened.
“I don’t even really know, man,” Boomershine told them, according to the affidavit. “All I know is I was looking down at a green car and next thing I know, bam.”
He told officers the green car was a “little ways before” the area where the collision occurred.
“He was looking at a female in the green car,” the affidavit said.
First responders rushed Will to an area hospital.
At 7:45 am that Wednesday, Ensley was about to leave home, headed to a work meeting. As he came down the stairs of his Shawnee home, he saw his wife, Sharon, at the front door talking to a police officer.
“And then my wife turned around, and her face was just ashen,” Ensley said. “She didn’t look right.”
The couple rushed to the hospital, as did their oldest son, Jack, who was at work when he heard what had happened. The family soon learned that Will wasn’t going to make it.
Many people close to Will — Coach Lee, members of the swim team, neighbors and family friends — arrived at the hospital to spend time with the teen before he was wheeled away by medical staff who would help harvest his organs. The teen registered to be a donor when he got his license.
“I am so proud of the fact that he was able to save and change lives through organ donation,” Sharon Ensley said. “We will do our best to honor and remember him every day for the rest of our lives.”
Will’s dad mentioned the support his family received and the decision his son made in the eulogy he wrote that was read at the funeral.
“Many of you were there with us with Will, and you can’t know what that meant to us,” the eulogy said. “In passing he has helped save the lives of two others with his donated kidneys, and he may yet save further lives through the donation of his heart valves.”
‘We did it for Will’
Will’s father plans to tell the court on Thursday about his funny and kind son who had an easy smile. How he was an honors student in high school and was in the prime of his life when he was taken away.
And he will explain how the 17-year-old’s death impacted family and friends, neighbors and members of the community and a team of swimmers who lost their captain.
This past fall, just months after Will died, a few of his friends dropped by to see his parents. They mentioned that the assistant coach of the Shawnee Mission Northwest swim team left for another job.
Ensley, who wasn’t looking forward to the “long winter without Will and his swim season,” thought about the situation for a couple of weeks and then emailed Lee about the job. A former college athlete, Ensley had helped guide his sons in swimming for years.
“I wanted to do it because I thought it would help me to be around Will’s guys,” Ensley said. “And I hoped I could help them somehow as well.”
Lee was all in — “a thousand percent in,” the coach said.
Ensley admits that it was “super hard to walk in that first day.” The deck of the Northwest pool is where his son shined, where he swam with his brother and where Will grew as an athlete and leader.
But being there helped. Not just Ensley, but his son’s team and coach.
“It was good to have his presence,” said Lee, who after Will’s death admits he “wasn’t really feeling swimming.”
“It really continued to help me give it my all.”
Everything the team did last season, Lee said, “we did it for Will.”
“The best way to honor him was to kick ass in the pool — I think he would have loved that.”
In the end, Will’s teammates did well at state. The boys team had more swimmers make the podium, finishing in the top eight, than Shawnee Mission Northwest had in about 20 years, Lee said.
“If we had him, it could have been really magical,” Lee said. “ … We did great, but if we had him on the relays, gosh, we could have won some state titles.”
Everyone felt Will’s presence, Lee said. And the loss.
During the 100-yard breaststroke, the coach left the pool area.
“I didn’t want to watch it, because I knew that was Will’s event,” Lee said, “and he would have won.”
Last month, Ensley took to the water like his sons have for years. The brothers would always try to “goad” their dad into entering the Sunflower State Games swimming competition, he said. And he always wanted to do it because the three could do it together.
But by the time July would roll around each year, he didn’t feel like he was in good enough shape. After Will’s death, he took to the pool in time to train for what was his first competitive swim.
He ended up at the pool at Shawnee Mission Northwest. And Lee at times helped him train. Like he had done with Will.
“I got some experience with some drills our (Northwest) swimmers do, and some of the equipment they use,” said Ensley, who plans to swim the contest again next year. “So, it was good for me physically, but also mentally to know the kind of effort our guys have to put forth during some of their workouts.
“It was also special for me to get to train in the (Shawnee Mission Northwest) pool,” Ensley said, “because I can feel Will in that space.”
The Star’s Robert A. Cronkleton contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 22, 2024 at 8:00 AM.
