WKYT Investigates UPDATE

22/12/2023

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – New details – including aspects of future testimony expected in court by two surviving crash victims – challenge key parts of an account from the suspect charged in a deadly crash [1].

Cheyeene Clifford [2], 25, is charged with 11 counts – including murder and DUI – in connection with a crash late the night of June 3 in Nicholas County. Two people died. Two others were injured.

In an exclusive interview last month with WKYT’s Garrett Wymer [3], Clifford downplayed how much he had had to drink that day and was adamant that he was not driving at the time of the crash.

Yet accounts from several eyewitnesses contradict those aspects of his story, as does other information available in the record that was outlined by an attorney for the crash victims.

“They wanted people to know the truth,” Justin Peterson, a personal injury attorney and owner/founder of Peterson Law Office [4], said of his clients urging him to share their story after taking issue with “misrepresentations” Clifford made in his interview.

Peterson represents the surviving crash victims Emily Earlywine and Dylan Saucedo, as well as the estates of Gage Gaunce [5], 20, and Clay Welch [6], 17, in civil litigation.

They have sued Clifford, his insurance company and the owners of a local bar that the group went to on the night of the crash.

Since June, WKYT Investigates has uncovered several new developments in the case, including that Clifford was pulled over and let go with a warning less than two hours before the deadly crash.

Previous coverage via WKYT Investigates:[7]

“There were so many times where this tragic incident could have been prevented,” Peterson said.

He identified five such points on June 3:

The first was earlier that day when Clifford, who admitted that he had been drinking, decided to drive. Peterson said that testimony will show that Clifford had been drinking while fishing long before the others showed up, which would be earlier than Clifford let on in his jailhouse interview.
At that point in the day, Peterson said, the others riding with him will testify that he was driving recklessly. As WKYT has previously reported [8], 911 callers reported a reckless driver in a red truck that matched the description of Clifford’s truck.

One person on the line, in a 911 call obtained by WKYT [9], even identified Clifford by name.
Clifford’s father also confronted him that day while the group was stopped at an apartment and pleaded with him to stop driving, Peterson said. Reached by phone, Roger Clifford, Cheyeene’s father, confirmed the encounter but said the others would not get out of the truck at the time. “I was trying to prevent it,” Roger Clifford said.
In his jailhouse interview [10], Cheyeene Clifford denied being noticeably intoxicated when he was pulled over [11] by Carlisle Police Officer Jamie Copher at 9:49 p.m., but did say there were open containers visible in the truck at the time and said that he likely would have failed a sobriety test if he were given one. Peterson said his clients will testify that, as Clifford told WKYT, the officer did not take any enforcement action [12] but told the group to “take it out of town” or “take it out in the county.”
Peterson said while the group was at the Gyp Joint [13], Earlywine reached out to a friend for a ride, but they were not allowed to wait in the parking lot after Clifford was “forcibly removed” from the bar.

Their lawsuit against the bar’s owners [14] further claims they “were forced…to leave the premises with” Clifford, despite his “exhibiting signs of intoxication such that he posed a danger to other persons,” and that workers “took no steps to prevent” him from causing injury when he took off driving in his truck.

“People are going to wonder, why didn’t these young adults get out of the car? ‘Why didn’t you go figure something out?’ And before everything happened, they did,” Peterson said. “I think it’s important to know that, that ultimately they did make an effort to try to get out of the vehicle, to get a sober ride, to get safely home – and it didn’t happen.”

Clifford claimed that he was no longer driving when the group left the bar in his truck, yet that contradicts the direct accounts of the two surviving victims and the actions witnessed by two good Samaritans who live next to the crash site.

WKYT had previously reported that investigators believed Clifford was driving, despite his denials, but until now had little insight into why or how they came to that conclusion. In the jailhouse interview, Clifford blamed his arrest on law enforcement corruption and personal vendettas and said “there’s no way” he would be convicted.

But the police report from the crash says that both Earlywine and Saucedo told deputies that Clifford was driving and had been drinking, and that they believed him to be intoxicated, Peterson said. A deputy who spoke with Clifford after the crash described “a strong smell of alcohol coming from his person.”

Several beer cans were found at the scene, according to multiple people there that night.

A blood test after the crash found Clifford’s blood-alcohol content to be .14, his arrest citation states – nearly double the legal limit of .08.

Citing “prospective law enforcement action,” the Nicholas County Sheriff’s Office this week denied a WKYT Investigates open records request – filed December 5 – asking for a copy of the crash report. Likewise, custodians of the county’s dispatch records previously told WKYT’s Garrett Wymer that logs, 911 calls and other records related to the crash would not be available while the criminal investigation is ongoing.

Clifford’s claim not to have been driving also contradicts what the good Samaritans who were first to arrive at the scene said Clifford told them – and what they said they heard him telling others – in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

Larry and Rebecca Allison, who live on the property where the truck ended up, called 911 to report the crash. They told investigators that Clifford kept telling them and the other passengers that it was not his fault, that a white car ran him off the road.

Rebecca Allison previously described that night in an interview with WKYT’s Garrett Wymer [15].

“We know that there’s also physical evidence as to what we believe occurred as well, in addition to the testimony, in addition to Mr. Clifford’s admissions at the scene to the good Samaritans,” Peterson said. “And I think that’s what they [his clients] wanted people to know.”

Evidence and testimony will place Clifford in the driver’s seat, Gaunce in the passenger’s seat, Welch in the back seat on the passenger’s side, Earlywine in the middle of the back seat, and Saucedo in the back seat on the driver’s side, Peterson explained, pointing out what he said the crash report shows.

“It’s easy to see that the impact to the tree was on the passenger’s side,” Peterson said. “Who are the two people who passed? It was the person in the front passenger’s side and the back passenger’s side.”

No one was believed to be wearing a seat belt.

After the crash, Peterson said Clifford used Earlywine’s phone to call someone to come get him from the scene.

Clifford was allowed to leave the scene to be taken to the hospital by his father, his arrest citation states.

Both the criminal and civil cases surrounding the crash are ongoing, meaning that information beyond what is in the public record – and even some of what, upon conclusion of the investigation and legal proceedings, eventually will be considered public or in open records – is limited, and often times those involved may be hesitant to comment.

But a flurry of activity in recent weeks – sparked by amended court filings [16], Clifford’s interview [17] and now the victims’ response – has again brought the case renewed attention even six months later.

“We feel very strongly that, once all of that evidence is made known,” Peterson said, “there will be accountability for those who should be held accountable.”

Peterson said he is also looking into “other potential causes of action based on people who may be held accountable in this instance.”

A motion hour in the civil lawsuit filed by the victims happened Monday, with another one scheduled for January 9.

Clifford was in court Monday for a pre-trial conference in the criminal case against him.

The next pre-trial conference is scheduled for February 19.

References

^ deadly crash (www.wkyt.com)
^ Cheyeene Clifford (www.wkyt.com)
^ Garrett Wymer (twitter.com)
^ Peterson Law Office (www.justinpetersonlaw.com)
^ Gage Gaunce (www.mathers-gauncefuneral.com)
^ Clay Welch (www.clarkfuneralhomes.net)
^ WKYT Investigates (www.wkyt.com)
^ WKYT has previously reported (www.wkyt.com)
^ 911 call obtained by WKYT (soundcloud.com)
^ jailhouse interview (www.wkyt.com)
^ when he was pulled over (www.wkyt.com)
^ did not take any enforcement action (soundcloud.com)
^ Gyp Joint (goo.gl)
^ lawsuit against the bar’s owners (www.wkyt.com)
^ in an interview with WKYT’s Garrett Wymer (www.wkyt.com)
^ amended court filings (www.wkyt.com)
^ Clifford’s interview (www.wkyt.com)