Appleton driver charged with vehicular homicide in crash that killed two passengers
FOND DU LAC - A 20-year-old Appleton driver was charged Wednesday with multiple counts involving vehicular homicide after the SUV they were driving crashed along Interstate 41 on Sunday, killing two passengers and injuring two others.
Samuel Coppersmith remains in Fond du Lac County Jail on a $150,000 bond ordered during a court appearance Wednesday by Judge Dale English. Coppersmith is charged with 10 counts in all, which include homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle while having a prior intoxicant-related conviction and a prior prohibited alcohol concentration, homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and knowingly operating a motor vehicle causing great bodily harm and death.
Killed in the crash, which occurred just south of Townline Road in the town of Friendship, were Nana Yaw Yeboah, 49, and Malike Bridges, 22, both of Appleton.
Deputies responding to the scene around 9:15 p.m. found the SUV overturned in both lanes of traffic with several individuals lying face down in the road. Multiple liquor bottles were scattered in the roadway, along with several red Solo cups, court records state.
First-responders performed life-saving efforts on the two men. One was found in the roadway without a pulse, and the other entangled in cable wire in the median.
Two other passengers survived — a 19-year-old Appleton woman who was found in a ditch several feet from the SUV, and a 26-year-old Appleton man with severe facial injuries, court records state.
Coppersmith was found wearing a seat belt and trapped inside the vehicle. The 20-year-old was unresponsive at the crash scene and was transported, along with the others, to ThedaCare Regional Medical Center in Neenah.
Deputies determined the vehicle was going north on I-41 when it drifted off the road, corrected and rolled multiple times before it came to rest in the road. A witness who saw the crash told deputies the SUV passed him and, while in the left lane, was tailgating a red minivan. The driver then turned sharply into the right lane, where the SUV fishtailed, hit gravel then flipped over on the pavement.
Authorities determined the group had been at the Tiki Bar resort in Dundee prior to the crash, where they were asked to leave for acting inappropriate, court records state.
Coppersmith's prior record shows an April 2017 of conviction of operating while intoxicated, with a passenger under the age of 16, followed by underage drinking in Outagamie County, where Coppersmith failed to appear in court.
The defendant also has open case files for being a minor in possession of alcohol in Fond du Lac County on June 19 and tampering with a court-ordered ignition lock in April in Outagamie County. An arrest warrant was issued on June 30 when Coppersmith failed to appear in court
Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said the point alcohol concentration charges may be removed, pending toxicology results from the State Crime Lab.
Coppersmith is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Aug. 7. If convicted of all charges, Coppersmith faces life in prison.
Contact Sharon Roznik at 920-907-7936 or sroznik@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/reporterroz/
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This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Fond du Lac County: Appleton man charged with vehicular homicide
