Hill County bar owner charged with hit-and-run that injured motorcyclist

WHITNEY, Texas (KWTX) – The owner of a Whitney sports bar remains in jail in Hill County after being arrested in connection with a May 24 hit-and-run crash south of Aquilla that seriously injured two Aquilla residents.

Claude Ray Woodard Jr., 55, was arrested last week after Department of Public Safety officials linked Woodard’s pickup truck to a collision with a Harley Davidson Road King driven by Connor Patrick Deveney, 26, and Kristin Dawn Shinn, 29.

The incident occurred around 10 p.m. south of Aquilla near Farm-to-Market Road 933 and Hill County Road 2207 when Deveney, traveling north on 933, pulled onto the shoulder to turn toward Shinn’s residence, a trooper wrote in an arrest affidavit.

A white pickup truck that collided with the motorcycle failed to stop and continued on 933. Shinn’s right leg was “partially amputated” and a passerby placed a tourniquet on him, the affidavit states. Shinn was flown to a Dallas hospital for treatment.

Deveney also suffered severe injuries to his right leg and complained of difficulty breathing due to a broken rib, the affidavit said. He was flown to a hospital in Waco and later transferred to a temple facility.

Woodard, who also works for Union Pacific Railroad, remains in custody under a $500,000 bond on two counts of third-degree aggravated assault. However, Hill County District Attorney Mark Pratt said he intends to file two counts of second-degree aggravated assault against Woodard at a Hill County grand jury meeting on Friday.

Police began investigating Woodard after someone reported seeing his damaged pickup truck. It was missing a side mirror, which police allegedly matched to his truck after finding it at the scene of the accident. The pickup was parked at Woodard’s EndZone Sports Bar and Grill in Whitney the next day.

Woodard initially told investigators he was home after work at 8:30 p.m. the night before. He said the damage to his truck occurred when he hit it with his green John Deer tractor that morning. However, the officer noted in the affidavit that there were no green paint stains and the damage to the truck did not match the accident Woodard described.

Officers later found that Woodard had been drinking at Wolf’s Sports Bar in West before the crash. A time-stamped receipt showed he paid at 9:40 p.m. and left Wolf’s at 9:44 p.m., according to the affidavit. Officers later confirmed the timing by examining street cameras in West and from a hardware store in West.

Woodard corrected his statement and admitted to being with Wolf, but told police he was home at 9:30 p.m., about 30 minutes before the incident.

All rights reserved.