KC-area family devastated after fatal crash case dropped. ‘We get no justice’
The calendar hanging in Celeste Lamar’s kitchen in Olathe still has the word “trial” written in red ink for a block of days later this month.
She and her six children and extended family and close friends have been anticipating those days — Aug. 25, 26 and 27 — for nearly two years. They’ve taken off work, written statements they wanted a judge and jury to hear and prepared mentally for how difficult the days would be.
Being there was critical for the family, Lamar said. So they could see some justice after the death of George Abasta, Lamar’s common law husband of nearly two decades and father of her children. Abasta was fatally hit by a tractor trailer on Interstate 435 near Metcalf Avenue two years ago and Litisha Johnson, the driver of that semi, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident.
But earlier this month, prosecutors dropped the charge against Johnson. They told Lamar and her family — and the Johnson County District Attorney said the same to The Star — that they would have a problem proving that Johnson knew that she had hit someone. Johnson has continually said she thought she hit a deer. Not a person walking in the road.
“We get no justice,” Lamar said, her voice breaking. “The thing that is really hurtful is we never got heard in court. … We were looking forward to seeing her. For her to see us, at the very least. Whatever the outcome ahead.
“He is gone and nobody is being held responsible for just leaving him there.”
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said his office has spent months working the case and struggled with the strength of dash cam video from that early October 2023 morning that would be key evidence at trial. That footage, Howe said, showed what happened at a “different vantage point” than what the driver may have seen from behind the wheel.
“As we dug into what the experts were saying and what the camera did or did not show,” Howe said, “ … we came to the conclusion that we would have very little chance of being able to show that she did or should have seen the victim on the Interstate.”
Prosecutors have spoken to the family over recent months, Howe said, letting them know the difficulties of the case. Not just the questions about the viewpoint of the video, he said, but also that Abasta, 50, was intoxicated and had caused an initial crash and was “fleeing” that one when he was hit by the semi.
Because of those factors, Howe said, “we didn’t feel like we could, in good faith, go forward with the case.”
Lamar and other family members are still searching for answers. Ultimately, they want someone to review the case and scrutinize decisions made.
“There’s a miscarriage of justice,” said Rachel Hanson, Lamar’s sister. “We need to look at this again. I don’t understand why this isn’t being investigated more.”
Hanson has written the Kansas Attorney General and the Governor’s office. Both told her they didn’t have jurisdiction or oversight over the prosecutor’s office to intervene.
In the past year, the family worried that Johnson may plead guilty and there’d be no trial, Hanson said. And they knew that when it went to trial, it wouldn’t be easy.
“But as far as dropping the charges,” Hanson said, “that came out of complete left field.”
The early morning crash
On Oct. 9 nearly two years ago, Overland Park police responded to an accident around 1 a.m. involving two vehicles on the eastbound side of Interstate 435 just before Metcalf Avenue.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found a deceased man — later identified as Abasta — lying on the highway. He was on westbound I-435 at Metcalf, according to police.
Investigators determined that Abasta was involved in an initial accident with another vehicle and attempted to cross over to the other side of the highway from where his car had stopped, officials said. While walking there, he was struck by the semi-truck.
Leaving the scene of the first accident was “uncharacteristic” for Abasta, who was known for helping other people and strangers, his family said. Relatives said they believe he may have been “disoriented” after the first collision. That driver in that incident received minor injuries, Howe said.
Johnson, of Florida, was charged last year for leaving the scene. Soon after the crash, she told authorities in her home state that she thought she had hit a deer.
Christopher J. Angles, Johnson’s attorney, said she did not see Abasta on the highway, “but she felt the impact.”
“She stopped at the next exit to inspect the damage and saw minor damage consistent with a deer strike,” Angles said. “When an experienced police crash investigator examined the truck soon after, he agreed the minor damage was consistent with a deer strike.
“Though Ms. Johnson did not see Mr. Abasta as he ran into her truck on west-bound I-435, no one feels worse about this accident. She stated from the beginning and to this day she thought she had hit a deer.”
The Abasta family still struggles with the fact that she didn’t stop.
Lamar and her family has filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against the trucking company Johnson worked for.
“If she had done the right thing,” Lamar said, “we wouldn’t have been going to court. She wouldn’t be going to court.
“But the fact of the matter is, everybody is overlooking the fact that she did not stop.”
On Aug. 1, Lamar and members of her family met with prosecutors. They thought, she said, the goal was to discuss the case and upcoming trial.
She said they were “nonchalant” when they told her they would be dropping the charge and there’d be no trial.
“My husband died, and they’re acting like this is like a traffic court or something,” Lamar said. “I’ve lost total faith in the justice system. I mean, like, it’s a joke to me now, because I see how they don’t care. They really don’t care.”
Some cases, Howe said, are difficult to prosecute.
“I understand their concerns,” he said of the Abasta family. “I understand their frustration. But our job is to objectively evaluate the case and do what we think is the right thing to do based on the evidence that we have available.
“And we felt, even though we understand their frustration and our desire to see that justice is done, sometimes we have to have to make the tough call, and sometimes that is that we have to dismiss a case that we just don’t feel like we can prove, and based on the evidentiary presentation of evidence through the experts, we felt like this was the right decision.”
Earlier this month, Angles, Johnson’s attorney, filed a motion to expunge the charge from his client’s record. Kansas law, he said, “permits immediate expungement” when a case is dismissed.
“This case was about an accident, and the hard truth is this: Mr. Abasta caused it,” Angles said in an email. “... More than anyone, Ms. Johnson wishes this accident never happened.
“Regardless of the legal process, Ms. Johnson can never expunge from her mind that she was involved in a fatality accident. She will never drive a truck again.”
Hanson, Abasta’s sister-in-law, said that Johnson has not shown remorse for what happened. And that’s tough for the family to deal with.
“They put all the blame on him, and he’s not here to defend himself,” she said. “He can’t explain himself. I believe we need accountability, that’s the biggest thing. That’s all we’re looking for. And some genuine remorse, not a lawyer’s statement.”
‘Took our voice away’
Three weeks after Lamar learned that she and her children wouldn’t have their time in court, she still can’t bring herself to update her calendar, crossing out the words “trial” written in red ink.
And her daughters, who had already written their victim-impact statements, are “devastated” they won’t be able to read them inside a courtroom, Lamar said. Her entire family wanted, even needed, those three days.
“We were told we were going to get to share in court,” she said. “They took my whole family’s voice and not to mention his friends’, I mean, everybody that loved him, they took our voice away.”
Lamar received three pieces of mail last weekend from the prosecutor’s office. One was the official notice that the charge against Johnson had been dismissed. The other two letters — one addressed to her, the other to George — explained that Johnson’s attorney had filed a motion to expunge the charge from her record. And that if the family wanted to provide input about that motion, they could contact the prosecutor’s office.
Lamar said it was all too much.
“Tell me why they’re mailing my deceased husband a letter,” Lamar said. “I just want to take my husband’s urn up to the D.A.’s office and say, ‘Yeah, me and my husband are here to testify as to why he’s in this urn.’”
Howe said the goal of those letters is to make sure family members are aware of the motion to expunge and that they are able to provide their opinions.
“You’re sending it in order to try to reach out to make sure that a family member receives it,” Howe said.
The decision of whether to expunge the charge from Johnson’s record is up to the judge, Howe said. His office can take a position, either to support or oppose the expungement, he said, and so can the family. Prosecutors have yet to meet and discuss that decision, he said.
In the days after her husband’s death, Lamar said she heard from countless people whose lives were impacted by the man who was well loved by family and friends.
“There were people coming to my door that I didn’t even know,” she said. “They were like, ‘Your husband helped me out and one day I was on the side of the road, he gave me a ride,’ and ‘He just helped me fix my car.’ Or, this one guy was like, ‘Yeah, he helped fix my daughter’s car.’
“That’s just how he was. And it’s so cruel, cruel and ironic, that the same respect isn’t given to him in his death.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
