MONROE, Ga. — State troopers said a Covington man was killed after a crash in a truck that had been stolen minutes earlier at a gas station in Social Circle.
The driver was killed at the scene after the truck ended up flipped into a stand of trees just south of downtown Monroe. He was identified as 37-year-old Mathew Shane Lester.
Troopers responded at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. A white Ford truck reportedly had been stolen from a gas station and driven north at high speed on Georgia 11 into Monroe.
The truck tried to pass a white pickup truck on the left, which was driven by an off-duty state trooper and struck the corner of the white truck with its right outside mirror.
The stolen Ford then struck a southbound vehicle and rotated out of control and overturned, coming to rest in the trees.
Lester was found dead at the scene.
Monroe police and fire, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, the Walton County coroner and the Georgia State Patrol responded.
Lester gained notoriety for testifying in the 2019 trial of Christopher Michael McNabb and Cortney Marie Bell, who were convicted for the death of their infant daughter two years earlier.
Lester was out on parole since Nov. 6, 2019, after serving time in state custody on convictions for fleeing or eluding police in Newton County in March 2018.
