A Seneca woman with a pending criminal case in Newton County on a charge that she caused a fatal traffic accident while she was driving under the influence of drugs has been charged now with alleged drug trafficking.
Jessica Oliver, 31, was arrested Saturday in Seneca by officers with the Seneca Police Department with three others who also face charges. The new charges filed in Newton County allege that Oliver sold methamphetamine and unlawfully possessed drug paraphernalia.
Also charged with first-degree drug trafficking are Robert Pennington, 30, Carthage; Roy Beamer, 38, Carl Junction; and Matthew Beamer, age and address unavailable.
Oliver also faces a charge of violation of probation in Jasper County, where she pleaded guilty in a 2018 case of fraudulent use of a debit card and was granted probation. That hearing is set for July 10.
Oliver was charged in March with a felony count of driving while intoxicated and causing the death of Ilyas Jabbar Qawishabazz Sr., 55, on Aug. 10, 2021. A report by the Missouri State Highway Patrol detailing the accident said that Oliver crossed the center line and struck the Qawishabazz vehicle nearly head-on.
He was pronounced dead by a Newton County deputy coroner at the scene of the crash on Missouri Highway 43 at Kapok Drive, just a few miles north of Seneca.
Though the Missouri State Highway Patrol worked the crash when it occurred, the patrol left reports of the case unfinished for 17 months with no resolution as to what caused Oliver to veer into the oncoming traffic lane. The patrol has not fully explained how the lapse in the investigation occurred but since has told the man’s fiancee that the case became sidetracked because of personnel changes within the department that resulted in the case being overlooked.
The reports related to the fatal crash were finally finished in March after a complaint was filed with the patrol by the fiancee and a supervisor at patrol headquarters was contacted by the Joplin Globe.
The patrol then sent information to the Newton County prosecutor’s office and the prosecutor issued a search warrant for hospital records of Oliver’s blood test taken after the accident. The results of that test formed the basis for the filing of the charge.
Oliver had been held without bond on that charge until April 17, when Associate Judge Anna Christine Rhoades ruled that Oliver could be released from jail despite the prosecutor’s objection. A requirement of the release was that Oliver not drive a vehicle.