A bench warrant has been issued for a driver who was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and was driving the wrong way on Interstate 44 in Lincoln County, causing a traffic collision with a semi-tractor truck.
The $20,000 warrant was issued June 30 for Corey Lon Butler, 47, of Ardmore. A formal charge was filed in Lincoln County District Court the same day for driving while under the influence of alcohol aggravated.
Two other misdemeanors were also filed against Butler, including driving while license canceled, suspended, revoked and unlawful u-turn, driving the wrong way on the Turner Turnpike.
The felony count accuses Butler on April 29 this year of driving a Honda Accord on I-44 in Lincoln County while under the influence of intoxicating liquor as measured by the state’s test as 0.331, four times over the legal limit.
He also is charged with operating that vehicle on the turnpike while his license was suspended. The other misdemeanor accuses him of driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of traffic on I-44 in Lincoln County.
State prosecutors filed supplemental information showing a list of several other convictions.
On Sep. 14, 2000, Butler was convicted in Love County District Court of DUI, a felony and driving while license suspended, a misdemeanor. He was given a one-year suspended term for the DUI conviction and fined $200 on the other.
On July 15, 2010, he was again convicted, this time in Marshall County District Court, of DUI, a misdemeanor and handed a one-year suspended sentence in the county jail.
A little over a year later, Aug. 25, 2011, Butler was convicted in Carter County District Court of felony DUI and sentenced to two years in imprisonment in the Department of Corrections.
He was convicted again on Aug. 1, 2017 in Carter County District Court of felony DUI and handed a five-year sentence in DOC. He was also convicted the same day of driving while his license was suspended, a misdemeanor, and ordered to pay a $100 fine.
In an affidavit for an arrest warrant, State Trooper Matthew White reported he responded to a call of a passenger car driving eastbound in the westbound lane on I-44 from the Stroud travel plaza. White said he was approximately three miles from the travel plaza at the time.
The trooper made it to the 179 mile marker he stated and observed all westbound vehicles had stopped. He noticed a tan Honda Accord blocking both lanes of traffic and the vehicle was facing east, disabled with front-end damage.
Butler was the only one in the vehicle and he was sitting unrestrained in the driver’s seat and appeared to be unconscious. White said he also observed two white semis facing west, off the roadway to the north. One of those had significant front end damage, the trooper stated.
An ambulance was needed, White said, and it arrived, with paramedics tending to Butler. He was loaded into the ambulance and transported by Miller EMS ambulance to Mercy Hospital in OKC.
White states he spoke with Trooper Dustin Carlton who traveled to the hospital to check on Butler who advised he observed Butler with red, bloodshot eyes and a confused demeanor.
White also spoke with witnesses at the scene and through investigation concluded Butler was driving the Honda the wrong way on the interstate, colliding head-on with a semi.