GREAT FALLS — A 32-year-old Wolf Point man was sentenced Thursday to 40 months in prison and three years supervised release after pleading guilty to driving under the influence last October on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, crashing into a ditch and killing one passenger.
Andrew Preston Martell was charged with involuntary manslaughter in U.S. District Court in Great Falls, according to a press release sent Friday morning from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Montana.
At approximately 10 p.m. on October 1, 2018, Martell was driving on a county road on the Fort Peck Reservation with two female passengers. His blood alcohol concentration at the time of the incident was later determined to be around 0.182 percent. Martell drove the vehicle off the road, launching an end-over-end rollover that landed the vehicle and three passengers in a ditch. They became trapped and had to be extricated by emergency crews.
One female passenger was impaled by a crutch during the incident. She died at the scene.
U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassidy Adams prosecuted the case.
The investigating agencies included the FBI, Montana Highway Patrol, Fort Peck Tribes Law Enforcement and the Wolf Point Police Department.
