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PRICE — A Helper man is facing criminal charges after police say he had been drinking before getting into a fiery crash over the weekend while driving over 100 mph, resulting in the deaths of two of his passengers.
Tyler Lynn Laws, 33, was charged Wednesday in 7th District Court with two counts of automobile homicide, a second-degree felony, and reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor.
About 5:30 a.m. Saturday, emergency crews responded to a vehicle that crashed and caught fire near the Carbon County-Price Regional Airport. The first arriving officers found a 16-year-old girl outside of the car, a 2016 Chrysler 300, and were able to pull Laws out of the driver's seat.
"Due to the position of the crashed vehicle and the flames, responding officers were unable to retrieve a male from the passenger side back seat and a female from the front passenger seat," according to charging documents.
Friends on social media identified the two victims as Jaxxlyn Michelle Cowley, 16, and Michael MaCade Davis, who died a day before his 25th birthday, according to his obituary.
A law enforcement officer who attempted to rescue the occupants of the vehicle was also treated at a local hospital for undisclosed injuries, the Carbon County Sheriff's Office said.
When detectives were able to talk to the 16-year-old girl who survived, she said all four of them "had been drinking alcohol at a house party before the accident," the charges state. She also said the car was going 112 mph just before it crashed. Utah Highway Patrol troopers who checked the vehicle's Event Data Recorder found the the car was traveling 107 mph five seconds before the crash, charging documents say.
The speed limit on the road where the crash occurred is 55 mph.
Laws' blood was tested and showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.143%, or nearly three times Utah's legal limit, according to the charges.
Funeral services for Davis will be held Friday in Price. A memorial service for Jaxxlyn will be held Sunday.
