Abram
A Muncie resident facing criminal charges for an early morning fatality on New Year’s Day will soon make his first court appearance.
Marcus Abram, 26, is facing felony charges in the death of Heather Wallace, 40, of Indianapolis after his vehicle collided with the back of her car on Interstate 65 near the Jackson-Bartholomew County line.
The defendant is charged with causing death while operating a vehicle while intoxicated as a Level 4 felony, as well as operating a vehicle while intoxicated as a Level 6 felony. The second charge notes that Abram had a prior conviction within the past seven years, court records state.
If convicted on both counts, he could receive up to 13 1/2 years in prison.
Abram’s initial hearing before Bartholomew County Superior Court 2 Judge Jon Rohde is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 11 at 10:30 a.m. He has been released from the Bartholomew County Jail after posting $4,000 cash bond.
Formal felony charges were filed by the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office on July 11. With the assistance of the Noblesville Police Department, Abram was contacted and turned himself in to the Bartholomew County Jail on the evening of July 15.
A probable cause affidavit in the case from Deputy Grant Carlson of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department states there were three vehicles involved in the fatal New Years Day crash off and along northbound I-65, north of the State Road 11 interchange near Seymour.
The chain of events began when Wallace, who said she was too tired to finish driving from Louisville to Indianapolis, pulled off into the grassy median of I-65 to switch seats with her boyfriend, Vonte Smith, the affidavit states. As Wallace was climbing over a console to get to the passenger seat, Smith was outside, walking around the car, the report states.
As Smith was opening the driver’s door, Abram’s 2015 Mazda crashed into the rear of Smith’s vehicle at a speed investigators believe was more than 100 mph, the affidavit states.
The impact pushed the Smith/Wallace vehicle into a 180-degree turn and come to rest facing south while straddling the middle line. That’s where it was struck by a third vehicle, driven by Stephanie Newell of Erie, Pennsylvania, the affidavit states
Newell, who was travelling with her adult son to Pennsylvania from Alabama, said she didn’t see the vehicle until it was too late to avoid a head-on collision, Carlson wrote. Wallace, who was not moving after the first collision, was thrown from the vehicle after the second crash and died at the scene, the report states.
The Pennsylvania woman sustained four broken ribs while her son, Stephen, complained of chest pain, the report states Although Smith fell to the ground during the first collision, he was not seriously injured, the affidavit states.
Abram, who was treated at the hospital after complaining of chest pain, told investigators he drank three shots of whiskey in Nashville, Tennessee at about 7:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve before starting his drive north to return to Indiana.
While the crash occurred six hours after Abram allegedly consumed the liquor and began driving back home, the accident scene was only a three-and-a-half hour drive from Nashville. On a supplemental police report, Abram claimed he drank the three shots in Louisville, Kentucky, rather than in Tennessee.
Before Carlson began question Abram at the hospital, the defendant told the deputy his cellphone was on his lap in “hands free mode” while both hands were on the wheel, according to the report.
But after that question, Abram became hesitant about answering investigative questions and gave deputies different estimates of his speed during the collision, Carlson wrote. When asked how the accident occurred, Abram said he had blacked out and did not know any details about the crash, the report states.
Abram also refused to give investigators either a portable breath test or a blood sample for toxicology purposes, the deputy report.
Court documents also state the blood was obtained by a court order at about 4 a.m. that morning. It showed a 0.268 blood alcohol level, which is over three times the legal limit for driving in Indiana. A blood alcohol test was also given to Newell, but Carlson said it showed the Pennsylvania woman was well within legal limits.
