ALBUQUERQUE, NM - The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico announced that a man has been sentenced for a fatal drunk driving crash in 2022.
Prosecutors said in a press release that 38-year-old Cody Allen Charlie was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for the Aug. 7, 2022 accident on Interstate 40 on the Laguna Pueblo that left three people dead. There is no parole in the federal system.
Court documents stated that Charlie was driving intoxicated at 116 miles per hour while using his cell phone when he crashed into another vehicle on I-40 near mile marker 130. The impact caused the other vehicle to veer off the highway and onto the shoulder, where it rolled over. All three occupants of that vehicle were killed. Charlie left his vehicle and fled on foot without helping the victims, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
Charlie, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, will be subject to five years of supervised release when he is released from prison. He will also have to make full financial restitution to the victims of his crimes.
