{"id":1311559,"date":"2019-06-18T19:44:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T01:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=981591"},"modified":"2019-06-18T19:44:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T01:44:03","slug":"prosecutors-paint-gruesome-picture-of-tragic-rifle-rollover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/prosecutors-paint-gruesome-picture-of-tragic-rifle-rollover\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors paint gruesome picture of tragic Rifle rollover"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 11-year-old survivor of a back-road Rifle rollover crash that killed two people in December 2017 testified that the alleged driver had been drinking at some point before the wreck.<\/p>\n

Cody Christopher, 40, is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide for the deaths of Matt Smith, 36, and Trent Johnson, 41. He is also charged with vehicular assault, and child abuse for injuring Johnson\u2019s son, then 10 years old.<\/p>\n

The boy testified Tuesday afternoon that he saw Christopher drinking while sitting in a ranch storeroom in the afternoon before the four people went hunting for coyotes Dec. 28, 2017. <\/p>\n

Otherwise, the testimony was unclear. When District Attorney Jeff Cheney questioned the boy, he said he remembered Johnson, Smith and Christopher all drinking beer while in the car late that evening. When Christopher\u2019s defense attorney Lawson Wills questioned the boy, he testified that he didn\u2019t see Christopher drinking while driving. <\/p>\n

The boy later told Cheney that he could not remember seeing Christopher drink while operating the Ford Excursion before it went off the road and rolled down the hill into Middle Rifle Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember right before [the wreck], there was like a big bump and we went off,\u201d the boy said.<\/p>\n

The road conditions, whether it was slippery with a small amount of snow, were also unclear. But the boy described Puma Paw Road, part of which is known as County Road 219, a \u201crocky road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy also testified that after the crash, Christopher carried him part way from the scene of the wreck back to the ranch house, where Smith lived with his wife.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s family in the courtroom became visibly agitated as Wills pushed the boy to describe how he crawled from an overturned car and saw his father\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

The prosecution claims Christopher was intoxicated while driving but did not get a clear answer from the boy.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s wife, Lyndsay Smith, also did not testify clearly about Christopher\u2019s intoxication.<\/p>\n

The Smiths managed the Puma Paw Ranch, a private outdoor resort that ran some cows and hosted guests for hunting and other activities.<\/p>\n

The jury heard recordings of two 911 calls Lyndsay made after Christopher and the boy arrived at her house, bleeding and injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are bleeding bad,\u201d Smith told the dispatcher, and added that two people were still missing from the wreck.<\/p>\n

Christopher was acting strangely, and had a head wound. When asked if Christopher appeared intoxicated, Lyndsay said, \u201cNo, but I couldn\u2019t tell because of the condition he was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith apparently told one investigator shortly after the accident that there may have been a slight alcoholic odor coming from Christopher, but in court, she said \u201cI couldn\u2019t smell anything over the blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis wasn\u2019t an accident. This was a chain reaction, based on defendant\u2019s actions, when he drank, and then he drove, and then crashed,\u201d prosecutor Sarah Nordgaard said in opening arguments for the trial.<\/p>\n

 \u201cMatt [Smith] and Trent [Johnson], their bodies grew colder and lonelier as the defendant was able to walk away from the crash that he caused when he drunkenly drove over a cliff,\u201d Nordgaard said.<\/p>\n

Wills did not make an opening argument Tuesday, but reserved the opportunity to present the defense\u2019s position later.<\/p>\n

The 11-year-old survivor of a back-road Rifle rollover crash that killed two<\/a> people in December 2017 testified that the alleged driver had been drinking at some point before the wreck.<\/p>\n

Cody Christopher, 40, is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide for the deaths of Smith, then 36 and Johnson, then 41. He is also charged with vehicular assault, and child abuse for injuring Johnson\u2019s son, then 10 years old.<\/p>\n

The boy testified Tuesday afternoon that he saw Christopher drinking while sitting in a ranch storeroom in the afternoon before the four people went hunting for coyotes Dec. 28, 2017.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the testimony was unclear. When District Attorney Jeff Cheney questioned the boy, he said he remembered Johnson, Smith and Christopher all drinking beer while in the car late that evening. When Christopher\u2019s defense attorney Lawson Wills questioned the boy, he testified that he didn\u2019t see Christopher drinking while driving.<\/p>\n

The boy later told Cheney that he could not remember seeing Christopher drink while operating the Ford Excursion before it went off the road and rolled down the hill into Middle Rifle Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember right before [the wreck], there was like a big bump and we went off,\u201d the boy said.<\/p>\n

The road conditions, whether it was slippery with a small amount of snow, were also unclear. But the boy described Puma Paw Road, part of which is known as County Road 219, a \u201crocky road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy also testified that after the crash, Christopher carried him part way from the scene of the wreck back to the ranch house, where Smith lived with his wife.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s family in the courtroom became visibly agitated as Wills pushed the boy to describe how he crawled from overturned car and saw his father\u2019s body.<\/p>\n

The prosecution claims Christopher was intoxicated while driving, but did not get a clear answer the boy.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s wife, Lyndsay Smith, also did not testify clearly about Christopher\u2019s intoxication.<\/p>\n

The Smiths managed the Puma Paw Ranch, a private outdoor resort that ran some cows and hosted guests for hunting and other activities.<\/p>\n

The jury heard recordings of two 911 calls Lyndsay made after Christopher and the boy arrived at her house, bleeding and injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are bleeding bad,\u201d Smith told the dispatcher, and added that two people were still missing from the wreck.<\/p>\n

Christopher was acting strangely, and had a head wound. When asked if Christopher appeared intoxicated, Lyndsay said, \u201cNo, but I couldn\u2019t tell because of the condition he was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith apparently told one investigator shortly after the accident that there may have been a slight alcoholic odor coming from Christopher, but in court, she said \u201cI couldn\u2019t smell anything over the blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis wasn\u2019t an accident. This was a chain reaction, based on defendant\u2019s actions, when he drank, and then he drove, and then crashed,\u201d prosecutor Sarah Nordgaard said in opening arguments for the trial.<\/p>\n

 \u201cMatt [Smith] and Trent [Johnson], their bodies grew colder and lonelier as the defendant was able to walk away from the crash that he caused when he drunkenly drove over a cliff,\u201d Nordgaard said.<\/p>\n

Wills did not make an opening argument Tuesday, but reserved the opportunity to present the defense\u2019s position later.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 11-year-old survivor of a back-road Rifle rollover crash that killed two people in December 2017 testified that the alleged driver had been drinking at some point before the wreck. Cody Christopher, 40, is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide for the deaths of Matt Smith, 36, and Trent Johnson, 41. He is also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 07:25:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}