KAYSVILLE, Utah, Nov. 17 (Gephardt Daily) — A man found guilty of three counts of automobile homicide — DUI, and one count of driving under the influence, has been sentenced on the four third-degree felonies.
Myron Millsap Barlow, 40, faces zero to five years in prison for each count, which a judge ordered to be served consecutively.
The two victims who died at the scene, on June 29, 2021, were identified by “Bridgerton” author Julia Quinn, as her father, and sister, author Steve Cotler, 77, and Ariana Elise Cotler, 37, a comic artist who went by the name Violet Charles.
“I have lost my father and my sister,” Quinn wrote on Facebook a few days after the accident. “Because a catering company did not secure their load and canvas bags spilled onto the highway. Because a pickup driver thought nothing of driving while his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.”
“I have lost my father and my sister. Because a catering company did not secure their load and canvas bags spilled onto the highway. Because a pickup driver thought nothing of driving while his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit,” Julia Quinn posted on Facebook. “I have lost my father, and I don’t have my sister with whom to grieve.”
Barlow, of Bluffdale, was in a Ford F-250 pickup, and had been drinking and driving since the night before after starting in Oregon, prosecutors said.
An officer of the Utah Highway Patrol filed Barlow’s probable cause statement.
“The driver explained that traffic had slowed in front of him and that he quickly changed lanes and collided with the rear of another vehicle. While speaking with the driver I could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath in an open air environment.”
An open container of alcohol was found in Barlow’s vehicle, it says. Sobriety tests on site indicated he was impaired, his probable cause statement says. A portable breath test showed him to be intoxicated.
An Intoxilyer test registered his blood alcohol at 0.146%, nearly three times the legal limit, court documents say.
“Two motorists, involved in the crash, were pronounced dead on scene, one was airlifted to the hospital, and two transported by ambulance,” arrest documents say.
As part of his plea deal, three additional charges against Barlow were dismissed with prejudice. They were two counts of DUI, a class A misdemeanor, and open container in a vehicle on a highway, a class C misdemeanor.
