DUI driver sentenced to prison in beloved Toymaker’s death

WEST JORDAN, Utah — The family of a beloved volunteer toymaker killed by a DUI driver reacted to the driver’s prison sentence, and explained why they’re hoping a new law will help other families going through the same court process.

For Julie Merrill, going into Tiny Tim’s Toy Factory to sand little wooden cars is “like therapy.”

“Because you can just really get into a groove,” she said. “You can, you know, kind of work through thoughts and emotions.”

She stood at a workstation Tuesday afternoon smoothening car edges, while the hum of machinery drowned out all other noise.

Man found guilty on all counts for death of local toymaker

Right now, she’s working through thoughts and emotions around losing her father, Claude Nile Thacker.

“Just, how we got here, where we came from, and everything that happened in between, you know. Just really thinking of my dad,” Merrill expressed.

Thacker died after another driver crashed into him as Thacker waited at a stoplight in West Jordan in December 2022, on the way to deliver 1,000 Tiny Tim’s toy cars to children in hospitals.

Merrill is also processing what happened Monday in a West Jordan courtroom.

Read the full story from KSL TV here.