Longview Fugitive Arraigned Following Arrest in Mexico

LONGVIEW — After nearly six years on the run, a Longview man who fled his $95,000 bail in 2005 was arraigned Thursday afternoon. According to KETK and the Longview News-Journal, Jamie Lee Coker, 53, fled while facing two life sentences for two counts of intoxicated manslaughter and three counts of intoxicated assault. Authorities say he was arrested in Mexico. Gregg County officials picked him up Wednesday night at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. According to Gregg County court records, Coker was booked into Gregg County Jail Thursday with bond set at $5 million.

Coker was arrested Feb. 13, 2005, after a two-vehicle crash in the 4500 block of West Marshall Avenue. Authorities said Coker was intoxicated when his Chevy pickup crossed the median and struck a Chevrolet Impala, killing his wife, 43-year-old Sonya Kaye Coker, and Martha Hillin Wallace, a 74-year-old grandmother who was riding with her son in the Impala. He was charged with two counts of intoxicated manslaughter and three counts of intoxicated assault. He posted $95,000 bond on June 15, 2005, and did not appear at his Sept. 29, 2005 sentencing.

After Coker fled, the late District Attorney Judge Bill Jennings, who was serving as an assistant district attorney at the time, told America’s Most Wanted that Coker was the one man he was determined to get into a courtroom. Jennings died Oct. 17, 2009.