2 impaired drivers, 2 people dead in Johnston County. Now 2 men going to prison
Two men accused of driving while impaired and causing crashes that killed two people and seriously injured two others have been sent to prison, following sentencings in Johnston County Superior Court this month.
Both crashes took place in 2022.
The first happened on May 21. The State Highway Patrol says Fernando V. Lynch got on Interstate 95 going the wrong way and hit another vehicle head-on.
Twenty-five-year-old Makayla Roche was killed, and her friend Kayla Agins was seriously injured. Both were from Jacksonville, Florida.
Blood toxicology tests showed Lynch had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10% and had previously consumed cocaine, according to the Highway Patrol.
Lynch, 35, pleaded guilty to felony death by vehicle, felony serious injury by vehicle and to his status as a habitual felon. Superior Court Judge Matthew T. Houston sentenced him to 20 to 26 years in prison.
The second crash took place Nov. 26, 2022, two days after Thanksgiving. State troopers say Kevin Shawn Kelly of Clayton was driving his Toyota Tundra on N.C. 42 just before 9 p.m. when he crossed the center line and hit a Ford Explorer head on.
The driver of the Explorer, 35-year-old Jose Martin Ramirez Hernandez, was killed, while his passenger, Ana Figueroa Hernandez, was seriously injured. Toxicology tests found Kelly’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.16%, twice the legal limit in North Carolina.
Kelly, 55 at the time, was initially charged with second-degree murder, among other crimes. Last week, a jury found him guilt of felony death by vehicle, felony serious injury by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, driving while impaired and driving left of center.
Superior Court judge William Wolfe sentenced Kelly to a minimum of six years and four months in prison.
Alcohol was a factor in just 4.3% of car crashes in North Carolina last year. But those crashes killed 377 people — 22.4% of those killed on highways in the state that year — and injured 8,103, according to data compiled by the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.
