West Valley City man sentenced for 2022 DUI death of pregnant woman, injury of her young daughter

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 7, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A man convicted of the DUI automobile homicide deaths of a mother and her unborn child, and the severe injury of her daughter, has been sentenced in the case.

In the May 3, 2022, death of Libbie Allan, Jack Keith Archibald, 54, has been sentenced to:

• One to 15 years each for two counts of automobile homicide criminal negligence DUI, a second-degree felony. The terms will run consecutively.
• One to five years for driving under the influence with personal injury, a third-degree felony. This sentence will run consecutively with the others.

Archibald will be given credit for time served since his arrest.

Charges dismissed with prejudice as part of Archibald’s plea deal are:

• Two counts of failure to remain at an accident scene involving a serious injury, a third-degree felony
• Driving on the wrong side of roadway, an infraction
• Driving on a sidewalk, an infraction

“Mr. Archibald put our entire community at risk when he decided to drive after drinking enough alcohol to put him at more than double the legal limit, while also on drugs,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a released statement.

“We continue to mourn the loss of the young pregnant mother and her unborn child. We applaud the judge for giving Mr. Archibald consecutive sentencing for severely injuring the young girl while in her own yard.”

Archibald, a West Valley City resident, had been driving east on 1700 South “when he veered across the oncoming lanes of traffic, went over a curb onto a lawn where he hit two people, L.A., a pregnant woman, and C.A., a minor, before continuing on through some bushes and an iron fence before stopping,” Archibald’s probable cause statement says.

Crash data obtained with a warrant for the car indicated that Archibald “exited the vehicle after the crash then got back in and drove away about 90 seconds later.”

Video from a nearby residence recorded Allan’s husband repeatedly asking for someone to call 911, “and Jack Keith Archibald can be heard saying ‘I’m gonna try and drive out to the street’ before the car drives away,” the statement says.

Mother and child were transported to an area hospital, where Libbie Allan was pronounced dead and her daughter was treated for serious injuries.

Allan’s autopsy revealed she was approximately 17 weeks pregnant. The fetus died as a result of the injuries to its mother.

“We would like to thank the Salt Lake City Police Department and our prosecutors for their diligent investigation and prosecution that helped put Jack Archibald in prison and off our streets,” Gill’s statement says.

“If you drink, drive, and injure people you will be aggressively prosecuted.”