Redacted affidavit reveals earlier DUI arrest in Klingler case

A heavily redacted affidavit has revealed that William Ray Klingler was arrested nine weeks before University of Kansas student Elsa McGrain was killed in a hit-and-run, adding a troubling earlier DUI investigation to an already closely watched Douglas County case.

The document shows Douglas County sheriff’s deputies were called shortly after midnight on Aug. 30, 2025, to the 1700 block of North 1500 Road, where a sergeant had stopped Klingler’s white Ford F-150 for a defective headlight after the truck turned into a private drive. Deputy Chase Coleman wrote that the sergeant smelled a strong odor of alcohol when speaking with Klingler from the passenger side of the truck. Coleman said he approached from the driver’s side and mainly smelled the cigarette Klingler was smoking.

The affidavit says Klingler told officers he was “mostly sleeping in his vehicle” and driving from Lawrence to a friend’s house in Eudora. After that point, most of the affidavit was blacked out, but the remaining text shows Coleman and Klingler spoke outside the truck, that Coleman asked when Klingler last slept, and that Klingler was eventually placed in the back of a patrol vehicle while officers searched the truck more thoroughly.

Klingler was taken to the Douglas County Jail shortly after 1 a.m. and then to LMH Health shortly after 2 a.m. A phlebotomist later drew blood under a search warrant, and the sample and syringes were placed in evidence for testing by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was already investigating the arrest in late August 2025, but the county district attorney’s office did not file charges until March 18, 2026.

The newly released affidavit ties that earlier arrest to the broader criminal case surrounding McGrain’s death on Nov. 6, 2025, in North Lawrence. Klingler was charged in March after months of delay, and the case has drawn sustained attention because of the gap between the August arrest and the fatal crash that followed. The record adds another layer of concern about impaired driving, delayed testing and how prior law-enforcement contacts can intersect with later deadly collisions in Douglas County.