Police still searching for driver who rammed car into local man’s house

Local police are still searching for the driver of a vehicle that plowed into a house on Gordon Hill in the early morning hours last Friday, but the three passengers already face criminal charges in the wake of the incident.

Darrell Storm said he was sleeping in the front bedroom of his red brick home at 10 W. Tennessee Ave. when he heard a loud "boom" sound, which he mistook for thunder.

"Then I heard some voices. By the time I got to the door and saw the car had hit the house, the guys that were in it had scattered off every direction," Storm said. "It was very surprising. I’m not really sure what their problem was that they ran the car into this house but it needs to be fixed."

Corbin Police Officer Jim Miller, who is investigating the case, said he and a fellow officer found one of the occupants of the vehicle not too long after the crash walking around on Civic Center drive; a quarter mile from the accident. Two others were arrested by Officers Kirk Wilson and Tim Baker behind Circle K convenience store on Gordon Hill.

Ronnie Wyatt, 25; Steven Birchfield, 31; and Kevin Sotherland, 22, were all arrested and charged with alcohol intoxication.
Miller said the three men claim a mutual friend of theirs, Jason Wagers, was driving the vehicle. A warrant for his arrest has been obtained and authorities plan to charge him with first-degree wanton endangerment and for leaving the scene of an accident.

Police say all four of the men were spotted together by witnesses drinking at several local restaurants.

"The other guys are advising us that they didn’t actually think he [Wagers] was drunk although the three of them were pretty well intoxicated," Miller said.

Miller said Wagers was driving "at a high rate of speed" and lost control at the crest of a hill and actually went airborne for about 15 feet before landing in the front yard of Storm’s home and slamming into a brick pillar on the front porch. The pillar was destroyed and some railing was also damaged. Absent the pillar, the vehicle would have rammed straight into the bedroom where Storm was sleeping.

"I feel pretty lucky," Storm said.