After fatal DUI crash sent car off Columbus bridge, judge denies bond for driver
The northbound Dodge Challenger that Angela Sanchez was driving ran off Interstate 185, crossed the median and the southbound lanes, and plunged off the bridge over Smith Road before it crashed upside down on the street below, police said.
It took emergency workers 90 minutes to free passenger Tymaria Thomas from the wreck reported at 10:35 p.m. Nov. 2, police Officer 1st Class Jonathon Glover testified Monday in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Paralyzed from the waist down, with a collapsed lung, internal bleeding and fractures to his neck and shoulder, Thomas died in intensive care at Piedmont Columbus Regional on Nov. 30, Glover said.
The 40-year-old Atlanta man was pronounced dead 26 days after the crash, according to Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan.
That left Sanchez, 44, facing charges of homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence, having an open container of alcohol, failing to maintain her lane and not using a seat belt.
She also was seriously injured, needing treatment and rehabilitation before she could be released from the hospital and booked into the Muscogee County Jail. Relatives testified she was in a coma at an Atlanta hospital until two weeks ago.
As she stood weeping Monday before Judge Julius Hunter, Glover recounted the evidence that led to her charges.
The evidence
He said officers at the scene noticed she smelled of alcohol and found an open bottle of spiced rum under the driver’s seat.
Though she refused a DUI test, police got a search warrant for the blood drawn upon her arrival at the hospital, and tests showed it had a blood-alcohol content of .135, Glover said. Under Georgia law, a BAC of .08 is enough to charge a driver with DUI.
Data from the 2019 Challenger’s computer system showed neither Sanchez nor Thomas was wearing a seat belt, and Thomas’ front passenger seat had been fully reclined, so he may have been asleep when the crash occurred, Glover said.
Court records show Sanchez had a pending DUI charge in Fayette County, Ga., and prosecutor Nicholas Hud asked Hunter to set no bond on her vehicular homicide charge. The judge agreed, finding probable cause to send the case to Muscogee Superior Court.
Hud told Hunter that Sanchez has a home address in Newnan, so she is not a local resident.
While setting no bond on the homicide charge, Hunter let her other bonds totaling $795 stand at $500 for DUI, $200 for an open container, $75 for failing to maintain her lane, and $15 for the seat belt violation.