DPS: WF man drove drunk at three times the speed limit before fatal crash

A Wichita Falls man charged with murder was driving drunk at speeds as high as 90 mph on a gravel road in Archer City when he crashed, resulting in the death of his 6-year-old nephew, who was not wearing a seatbelt, according to allegations in court documents.

Tyler Mark Steel, 30, was free Friday from Archer County Jail on total bonds of $300,000 for a murder charge in connection with 6-year-old Keller Spade Garrett's death and two counts of child endangerment in connection with two 12-year-old boys, according to court documents and online jail records.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers investigated the crash, and the agency plans to submit the case to the 97th District Attorney's Office, which serves Archer, Clay and Montague counties.

Ninety-seventh DA Casey Hall said Friday that her office did not have a case file for Steel yet, but she anticipated receiving the case this month and probably presenting it to a grand jury in October.

Steel faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder, a first degree felony. Child endangerment is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years behind bars.

Anyone accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Why was Steel charged with murder instead of, for instance, intoxication manslaughter — a second degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison?

The deadly crash happened while Steel was in the course of committing a felony, child endangerment, elevating the charge to murder, according to allegations. Steel did not have the 6-year-old buckled in and drove drunk at an unsafe speed with three children in his pickup.

A trooper's affidavits for three arrest warrants detailed the allegations against Steel in connection with the one-vehicle rollover crash July 9. The trooper wrote the affidavits to establish probable cause for a judge to issue warrants.

A few hours after the crash, Steel told the trooper he had a couple of drinks that day and celebrated a nephew's birthday. Then "me and the boys" went for a drive around 9 p.m., according to allegations in the affidavits.

The deadly crash was at about 9:45 p.m. near the intersection of South Rose Street and East Rose Street in Archer City.

"I never felt drunk or nothing like that or else I wouldn't have never drove them," Steel told a trooper.

Steel agreed to voluntarily allow a blood sample to be taken at United Regional Health Care System to be tested for alcohol.

"I take full responsibility for whatever comes of it. I take full responsibility," he told the trooper.

A DPS lab tested the sample collected about 1 a.m. July 10. Results showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.197, well over the legal limit of less than 0.08 in Texas.

The trooper's account of his investigation begins with his arrival at the crash scene about 11:44 p.m. July 9. A sergeant told him three juveniles and Steel had been transported to URHCS's Emergency Room.

More: Uncle charged with Archer City child's murder

At the ER, the trooper learned that 6-year-old Keller Spade Garrett of Archer City suffered a head injury in the crash and was flown by air ambulance to a hospital in the Metroplex.

When the trooper talked to Steel, he asked him how the wreck happened.

Steel said he had been sober for two years and had "a bad run in with alcohol before all that." He did not drink at all for about a year. He began having a couple of beers from time to time over the last year, but he did not get drunk.

All he remembered was that he was taking Spade home, Steel said. He didn't know how his 2019 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup flipped.

The trooper noticed Steel spoke "with a thick tongue," rambled, and couldn't organize his thoughts or recall events — all possible signs of intoxication.

On July 11, Spade was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. at Cook Children's Medical Center.

A report produced July 14 from imaging on the airbag control module in Steel's truck provided information about what was happening around the time of the crash. The highest speed in the report was 90.1 mph. The speed limit is 30 mph on South Rose Street.

On July 28, the trooper interviewed Steel. He said he drove around Archer City with children in the bed of his truck before the crash.

He pumped the brakes while driving up to stop signs to make their heads "move with the stop," Steel said. He also had a child in his lap while driving around.

One of the children told Steel he wanted to go home "because this ain't fun to me," Steel told the trooper. He recalled that all the children were wearing seatbelts and back inside the cab before the crash.

Steel stopped at Spade's house and told him it was time to go home, but the child said, "Go one more time, one more time, Tyler."

After he began driving again on a gravel road, he panicked "as soon as my headlights seen grass," Steel told the trooper. He hit the brakes once, but when he knew he couldn't stop the truck, he turned around and tried to brace the boys.

The crash investigation showed Steel was driving south on South Rose Street, too fast to be able to safely stop at the intersection of South Rose and East South Street. Steel drove through the stop sign and across East South Street.

More: Archer City crash kills 6-year-old

The truck went into the south barrow ditch, vaulted into a field south of the intersection, landed there and rotated counterclockwise quickly. The pickup went airborne again and started to violently roll toward the passenger side.

The 6-year-old was ejected as the pickup was rolling toward the passenger side, according to allegations in the affidavits. The truck came to rest on its wheels, facing east. Spade was not buckled into a seatbelt or a booster seat.

Steel was also not wearing a seatbelt, but the older boys were at the time of the crash, according to a DPS media release in August.

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, covers education, courts, breaking news, investigative projects and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: DPS: Wichita Falls man drove drunk at high speed before fatal wreck