{"id":1311639,"date":"2019-06-20T19:45:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T01:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=981816"},"modified":"2019-06-20T19:45:57","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T01:45:57","slug":"blood-on-steering-wheel-matches-suspected-rifle-rollover-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/blood-on-steering-wheel-matches-suspected-rifle-rollover-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood on steering wheel matches suspected Rifle rollover driver"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The vehicular homicide for Cody Christopher in Garfield County.<\/strong>
Thomas Phippen\/Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Three patches of blood found near the driver\u2019s seat of a car that rolled off the road, killing two men and injuring a 10-year-old boy, match the defendant, who is accused of vehicular homicide.<\/p>\n

Cody Christopher, 41, allegedly drove while intoxicated, and analysis of blood on the Ford Excursion\u2019s ceiling and steering wheel match his DNA, according to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation technician\u2019s testimony in court Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 28 crash occurred north of Rifle on Puma Paw Road. Prosecutors<\/a> say the left front tire began veering toward the edge of the road, struck two rocks about 5 feet apart, and continued until it went over the edge of the road, leading the vehicle to begin rolling 50 feet down a steep embankment.<\/p>\n

Two people in the car, Matt Smith, then 36, and Trent Johnson, then 41, were killed in the crash. Johnson\u2019s son, then 10 years old, was seriously injured.<\/p>\n

The defense has not presented a complete argument to the jury, but is expected to begin presenting evidence Friday.<\/p>\n

Christopher\u2019s attorney Lawson Wills asserted Wednesday that his client was not drinking while in the car, but did drink after the wreck, and that he wasn\u2019t driving his car at the time of the accident.<\/p>\n

The placement of Christopher\u2019s blood near the driver\u2019s seat is not conclusive, Wills indicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big problems with DNA is that no one knows when the blood was placed there,\u201d defense attorney Lawson Wills said in setting up a question.<\/p>\n

It could have potentially been there before the crash, during, or after, Wills said.<\/p>\n

Wills also pointed out that when CBI forensic investigators searched the Excursion for blood in June 2018 \u2014 nearly six months after the crash \u2014 they collected eight blood samples, but only three were tested.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear who determined which blood samples should be tested, and which should not.<\/p>\n

Wills indicated that Christopher and the 10-year-old had switched from the driver\u2019s side to the passenger side before the wreck, letting Smith and Johnson look out the driver\u2019s side windows to search for coyotes to hunt.<\/p>\n

The right side of Puma Paw Road was an embankment, and to the left opens into a valley.<\/p>\n

Besides Christopher, the only other witness to what happened in the moments before the roll over is the boy, who has consistently told officers, and testified in court, that Christopher was driving.<\/p>\n

Christopher said he was driving in a statement written down by a state trooper as Christopher was being treated at St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

Several law enforcement officers say they detected strong alcoholic odors from Christopher.<\/p>\n

One Colorado State Patrol trooper testified that Christopher had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and smelled strongly of alcohol in the ambulance that arrived after Christopher and the boy walked from the crash site to a ranch house where Matt Smith lived with his wife.<\/p>\n

The prosecution will present the results of several blood alcohol tests Friday.<\/p>\n

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

The vehicular homicide for Cody Christopher in Garfield County.Thomas Phippen\/Post Independent Three patches of blood found near the driver\u2019s seat of a car that rolled off the road, killing two men and injuring a 10-year-old boy, match the defendant, who is accused of vehicular homicide. Cody Christopher, 41, allegedly drove while intoxicated, and analysis of […]<\/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-1311639","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 10:51:40","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\/1311639","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=1311639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}