MARTINSBURG, WV : Deceased victim of drunk-driving crash identified on Wednesday, 1st January, 2020
Martinsburg, West Virginia
The woman who died after an alleged drunk driver crashed a Jeep into a Chevrolet on New Year's Day was a Gerrardstown, W.Va., resident who worked at the Walmart in Martinsburg, Berkeley County Sheriff Curtis Keller said.
The official cause of death for Lisa D. Brooks, 60, had not yet been determined, Keller said Thursday. An autopsy will be performed by the state medical examiner's office.
Cody Wade Braithwaite, 32, of Winchester, Va., was charged with driving under the influence with death, fleeing DUI, DUI third offense, fleeing with reckless indifference, leaving scene of accident resulting in death and felony possession of a firearm in connection with the 12:27 a.m. crash Wednesday on Interstate 81, according to Keller and Berkeley County Magistrate Court records.
Braithwaite, who was being held in Eastern Regional Jail on $110,000 bond on the charges, also is wanted by Virginia authorities as a fugitive from justice on charges of failure to register as a sex offender, according to court records. The latter stemmed from a 2013 conviction, according to court records.
A preliminary hearing fir the charges filed in connection with Wednesday's incident has been scheduled for Monday, according to court records.
Dispatchers originally received numerous calls about a reckless driver, and police eventually located Braithwaite, who was driving a 2004 Jeep with a Virginia license plate, getting on the interstate, Keller has said.
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