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Man gets 2-6 years for fleeing scene of wreck

Kurt Hildebrand
khildebrand@recordcourier.com
William Carnes
Provided

A Lake Tahoe man was sentenced to 2-6 years in prison for leaving the scene of a three-vehicle accident causing substantial bodily harm.

William Carnes II, 38, admitted to fleeing the scene of an April 18 head-on collision on Kingsbury Grade.

Carnes was driving a red Hyundai that crossed the centerline and hit another vehicle head-on.



According to court documents, the license plate on the Hyundai belonged on a Subaru registered to Carnes and there was a document in the vehicle with his name on it.

Carnes later admitted he’d been drinking earlier that day and prosecutor Matthew Johnson produced photos of Carnes’ vehicle showing it was strewn with empty vodka bottles.



He managed to evade searchers until July 3 when he caused a commotion on Kingsbury Grade and he was taken into custody where his true identity was discovered.

Johnson said one person received a broken vertebra in the collision while another said he was traumatized by the incident.

Johnson tried to enter police reports from two felony DUI arrests for Carnes out of North Dakota and Montana, but District Judge Tod Young ruled that Carnes wasn’t being sentenced for those issues.

Carnes had been working in the North Dakota oil fields up until November 2018, which also happened to be when he was arrested for a fourth DUI. Up until that point he was making $12,000 a month.

Young said he didn’t assume Carnes was under the influence when the collision occurred or that he was guilty of the DUI accusations.

However, he did say that the crime itself was an indication that Carnes wouldn’t follow rules of probation.

“You fled the scene for some reason where someone was injured,” the judge said.


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