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SMITH COUNTY – A Smith County man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to intoxication manslaughter charges in connection to a fatal 2024 crash that killed two people.<\/p>\nSMITH COUNTY – A Smith County man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to intoxication manslaughter charges in connection to a fatal 2024 crash that killed two people.<\/p>\n
According to our news partner KETK, a Smith County arrest affidavit says, deputies arrived to the scene of a two-vehicle crash on Sept. 14, 2024, at the intersection of Highway 271 and FM 2015. In a ditch on the south side of Highway 271, deputies found a Ram truck and a Dodge Grand Caravan both with extensive damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truck was resting in the ditch facing southbound,\u201d the affidavit read. \u201cDirectly in front of the truck was the van laying on its driver\u2019s side. It appeared the van had rolled onto its side and slide into an electric pole where it was currently resting on the guide wires.\u201d <\/p>\n
Inside the truck was lone occupant and driver, Ethan Luna. The van\u2019s occupants included driver Chelsea Askew and passengers Tammy Gibney and an unnamed minor. <\/p>\n
Officials said Askew and Gibney were pronounced dead at the scene, while the minor and Luna were transported to a local hospital.
\nAn investigation found that Luna was traveling south on FM 2015 and Askew was driving northeast on Highway 271. Luna failed to yield at the intersection, colliding with Askew and sending the van into the tree line at approximately 65 miles per hour, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n
While being transported to the hospital, deputies spoke with Luna, who allegedly stated he was going 60 miles per hour and did not see the stop sign at the intersection.<\/p>\n
Inside the truck, deputies found beer cans \u201cscattered throughout\u201d the back seating area, some of which appeared to be \u201cbusted open.\u201d Later, a small bag of suspected cocaine was located in the truck, which tested positive for cocaine.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Luna\u2019s blood was drawn after deputies observed the odor of alcohol from the truck and near Luna\u2019s face. The tests came back to show a BAC of 0.169, which is double the legal limit.<\/p>\n
In February 2025, Luna was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter and possession of a controlled substance. <\/p>\n
Luna pleaded guilty to all three charges and intoxication assault with a vehicle with serious bodily injury on Monday in District Court, according to court records.<\/p>\n
Luna received the following sentences. Intoxication assault with vehicle with serious bodily injury \u2013 10 years in prison. Intoxication manslaughter with vehicle \u2013 20 years in prison. Intoxication manslaughter with vehicle \u2013 20 years in prison and Possession of a controlled substance \u2013 2 years in prison. <\/p>\n
His sentencing run concurrently, meaning he will serve a maximum total of 20 years, according to court records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SMITH COUNTY – A Smith County man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to intoxication manslaughter charges in connection to a fatal 2024 crash that killed two people. According to our news partner KETK, a Smith County arrest affidavit says, deputies arrived to the scene of a two-vehicle crash on Sept. 14, 2024, at the … Continue reading Sentence pronounced in DWI<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1521580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1521579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-08 18:58:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1521579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1521582,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1521579\/revisions\/1521582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1521580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1521579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1521579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1521579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}