The Knox County bus driver blamed for a December fatal school bus crash was engaged in a texting conversation with a distraught woman named “Lacey” just shortly before he lost control of the bus he was driving.

The records, part of a six-month investigation, say 48-year-old James Davenport was consistently texting on his phone before he crossed a concrete median on Asheville Highway, crashed into another bus, and killed three people.

James Davenport

Davenport died earlier this month in what officials listed as a “natural death.”

At this point, it appears authorities have concluded their investigation.

Records say Davenport was driving a bus carrying students from Chilhowee Intermediate School on Dec. 2, 2014, when he made a sharp turn on Asheville Highway before crossing the median and running into another bus driven by Joe Gallman, causing it to flip over.

Two Sunnyview Primary students, 6-year-old Zykia Burns and 7-year Seraya Glasper and a Sunnyview teachers’ aide, 48-year-old Kimberly Riddle, died in the crash.

WBIR 10News obtained a copy of the text messages – eight pages – under the state Open Records Law from the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office.

The messages, which started at 1:12 a.m. the day of the crash, are mostly between Davenport and “Lacey,” a woman in legal trouble who says she’s living out of a motel and needs him to get her because she can’t afford to stay another day there.

“Come back and talk to me please,” reads one messages that Davenport received at 12:47 p.m. “I love (you) baby but (you) act like (you) have no care in the world about me having to go to court tomorrow knowing I will go to jail.

“If I don’t go and (you) promised me the other day you’d figure something out and for me not to worry baby so please come hold me I’m falling apart.”

Roughly an hour later, the woman sends another message, saying she “was so upset I shot # 300.”

Davenport told her he would stop by after he finished his bus route, which would be around 6 p.m.

At 1:49 p.m., Lacey replies, telling Davenport that she overdosed, passed out and hit her forehead on the TV stand. She said two people were about to take her to the hospital.

Roughly twenty minutes later, she called Davenport a “selfish (expletive),” and said she was going to stay with someone named “Rachel.”

Davenport replied at 2:13 p.m., telling Lacey that he stopped by but someone was there and “then it came time for (the) route.”

About 2:45 p.m., he told Lacey: “No she not right.”

At 2:56, Lacey responded: “Why (you) send me a text saying no she’s not right.”

The crash happened minutes later. His phone began to light up with texts from other contacts, asking if he was OK.

Lacey also continued to send messages but apparently didn’t know about the crash.

“If (you) don’t come over soon then never bother hearing from (me) again,” she said in a text at almost 5:07 p.m.

Davenport never replied.

More texts from well-wishers continued to trickle in.

At roughly 10:50 p.m. the day of the fatal accident, Lacey sent one final text, telling him she found another “guy” who “felt sorry (for) me and said he wants to start helping me and be my sugar daddy.”

The last text, according to the records, appeared seconds later from “Box Kim From Tackle.”

It read: “R U Ok?”  (WBIR-TV)