Last Updated on August 8, 2022, 12:45 PM | Published: August 5, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater filed charges Friday against the man who crashed into cars and an on-duty Edmond motorcycle officer waiting at a traffic light July 19.
The crash resulted in the death of the officer who died soon after at the hospital.
Jay Stephen Fite, 55, is now charged with one count of Murder in the Second Degree and one alternate count of Manslaughter in the First Degree.
Prater’s charging document accuses Fite of “operating a motor vehicle in a manner imminently dangerous to another person, evincing a depraved mind,” and killing Edmond Police Department motorcycle officer Christopher James Nelson “when not paying attention to surrounding traffic…”
The document goes on to explain that Officer Nelson’s motorcycle was pinned underneath Fite’s vehicle “inflicting mortal wounds which caused the death of …” Nelson on July 19.
An alternate charge of Manslaughter in the First Degree was also filed accusing Fite of “Driving Under the Influence of Drugs.”
The crash occured while traffice was stopped north bound on the Broadway Extension in the 14000 block.
Arrest
The narrative in the probable cause or arrest affidavit filed two days after the incident by the arresting officer says that the officer’s motorcycle and three other vehicles were struck by Fite’s vehicle.
The officer wrote that Fite said he was “overworked and very tired” and that he was “going too fast and was not able to stop his vehicle before the collision.”
The affadavit narrative states that several witnesses told investigating officers that they saw Fite “driving very fast for the area and was not slowing down for the north bound stopped traffic at a red light.”
The arresting officer wrote in the affadavit that he could smell the “odor of alcoholic beverage” coming from Jay Fite while in the back seat of his patrol car at the scene.
Fite refused a blood test but one was later done after a search warrant for Fite’s blood to be drawn was approved by a district judge.
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