Truck driver in I-35 wreck charged with manslaughter, admitted to smoking pot before work

PAULS VALLEY — A semi-truck driver has been charged with two counts of manslaughter after a deadly wreck involving five semis and two passenger vehicles on Interstate 35.

Garvin County District Attorney Greg Mashburn filed the first-degree manslaughter charges Thursday, alleging Tony Aghaji Enweremadu — who crashed into another semi and a car, killing its two occupants — was using his phone, driving under the influence of marijuana, operating a motor vehicle unreasonably for the highway conditions and driving too fast to stop in a reasonable time.

Enweremadu was driving northbound on I-35 in southern Oklahoma between Davis and Wynnewood and coming up on a construction zone where two lanes became one.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Brad Dansby, Enweremadu said he had received a notification from the Ring doorbell app on his phone. He was communicating with the FedEx delivery person through the app when he noticed traffic was stopped.

Swerving to the left, he collided with another semi and then a 2016 Honda Accord, killing occupants Conrad Rodgers and an unidentified adult female.

More: Two dead after five semi-trucks crashed on I-35 Wednesday. Here's what we know.

While in the hospital in Denton, Texas, Enweremadu told Dansby he had "smoked a bowl of marijuana" before his 8 a.m. shift that day.

Enweremadu wrote a statement recounting the events of the collision while at Oklahoma Highway Patrol headquarters in Ardmore.

"I am deeply sorry for the lost lives," he wrote in the last line of the statement, according to the affidavit.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Semi driver who killed two charged, admits to having smoked marijuana