Christine Chao

Introduction

Christine Chao is a 44-year-old woman from Rosemead, California, charged on October 20, 2026, with automobile homicide — a second-degree felony — for a June 12, 2026, three-vehicle crash on Interstate 15 near Levan, Utah, that killed 66-year-old Scott LaVar Lichfield of Fillmore. Charging documents filed in Utah’s 4th District Court state that Chao drove into the rear of a slowed vehicle in a construction zone near milepost 209 without braking, and that a warrant search of her phone found she had accessed a pornographic website less than two minutes before the collision. According to the charges, Chao told officers at the scene that she was at fault.

Background Information

The crash happened in construction traffic that had slowed to a near halt on northbound I-15. Per the charging documents, Chao’s SUV struck the rearmost of two slowed vehicles, pushing it into the vehicle directly ahead; all three vehicles ran off the highway, and Chao’s SUV came to rest against a fence. Officers wrote that they observed no brake marks on the roadway to indicate she tried to slow before impact. Lichfield, a backseat passenger in the vehicle first struck, was airlifted to a hospital and later died of a head injury, according to the Utah Highway Patrol. The New York Post described her vehicle as a blue SUV that slammed into a white sedan.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not tried. Automobile homicide is an accusation in charging documents, not a conviction: Chao has not been tried, no plea appears in the coverage to date, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Her reported statement that she was at fault, as recounted in the documents, is not a judicial finding.

The prosecution’s central detail came from the phone. Investigators seized Chao’s phone after the crash and obtained a search warrant; the documents state that “an examination of the phone pursuant to the warrant showed that (Chao) had accessed the website xvideos.com less than two minutes before the crash occurred,” a site the filing describes as commonly used to view pornographic videos, according to KSL’s report published by Courtroom Insider. Fox 13 Now reported the charge as filed is text messaging or email automobile homicide, a second-degree felony tied to handheld-device use behind the wheel, and ABC4 described it as automobile homicide while using a handheld device. The New York Post reported that Chao, a Rosemead native, had opened the site moments before her SUV plowed into the slowed traffic.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Coverage of the charge leaned on the stark juxtaposition of the phone record with the death, but Utah’s reporting gave equal weight to the victim. Lichfield’s obituary describes a Fillmore husband who had celebrated his 39th wedding anniversary the day before the crash, a father of five, a Sunday school teacher and finance professional, and a volunteer Santa Claus whose red winter jacket, it says, “kept the magic alive all winter.” “The very best thing he loved was just being with his children and grandchildren,” the obituary reads. “He would see a grandchild and say to them, ‘Come give me a hug.’” No statement from Chao, her family or a defense attorney appears in the coverage to date.

Current Status

Chao is charged with one count of automobile homicide and is scheduled to make her first court appearance on November 17, 2026, per Fox 13 Now, which listed her as having a California address. The case is pending in Utah’s 4th District Court in Juab County; the charge is untried, no conviction appears in the record, and no plea has been entered in the coverage to date. The New York Post flagged the charge Tuesday, citing TMZ, four months after the June crash that prompted the phone warrant.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Chao now faces a felony whose filing came four months after the crash and followed the warrant search of her own phone — the examination that produced the allegation at the center of the case. The documents’ account of her driving — no brake marks, an admission of fault at the scene, and a pornographic site accessed minutes before impact — has made the charge a nationally shared story, and it will travel with her name through a Utah courtroom process that began with a summons to appear on November 17. Until that process runs, the allegation remains untested; what is established is a death, a phone examined under warrant, and a timeline the prosecution says places the site visit less than two minutes from the collision.

Sources

• “Woman causes deadly three-car crash in Utah — while watching porn on her phone: police” — New York Post: source
• “Driver allegedly looking up porn charged in fatal Utah crash” — Courtroom Insider (KSL): source
• “Woman accused of accessing porn immediately ahead of deadly Juab County crash” — Fox 13 Now: source
• “Woman causes deadly three-car crash in Utah - while watching porn on her phone” — New York Post on X: source