Teresa Howell, Prosecuting Attorney for the Seventh Judicial District, announced on February 13, 2025, a Grant County jury convicted 34-year-old Blake Allen Wimberly of two (2) counts of Manslaughter, each a Class C felony punishable up to a maximum of 10 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
On January 6, 2023, at approximately 3:25 a.m., deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Department and troopers with the Arkansas State Police responded to, and investigated, the fatal two-vehicle crash on Highway 167. The criminal case file was submitted by Cpl. Todd Williams of the Arkansas State Police.
The case was presented to the jury by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Weber and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Cagney Kilgroe. Family support services were provided by Victim Witness Coordinator Amanda Groomes of the Grant County Prosecutor’s Office.
The evidence presented at trial showed the defendant, Blake Wimberly, was driving a truck south in the north bound lanes of Highway 167 when he crashed head-on into the medical equipment delivery van driven by Randy Burks, killing Mr. Burks and the defendant’s passenger, Dawson Whitmire. Upon the finding of guilt on both counts by the jury, brave family members of the Whitmire and Burks families took the witness stand and expressed to the jury how the tragic deaths of their loved ones had affected the families.
Judge Stephen Shirron presided over the trial and followed the recommendation of the jury and sentenced Blake Wimberly to twenty (20) years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The defendant was immediately taken into custody by the Grant County Sheriff’s Department at the conclusion of the trial to begin serving his sentence.
