Ada County Sheriff’s Office deputies have arrested a man for a misdemeanor count of dispensing alcohol to a minor in connection with a fatal crash in May that resulted in the death of 17-year-old Clayton Tully.
Deputies arrested Cole Dyer Wednesday night. Dyer posted a $5,000 bond and was released from the Ada County Jail. A court date will be set for later this month.
Evidence tests show Clayton Tully, 17, had a blood alcohol content level in excess of the Idaho legal limit of .08 for adults when he lost control of his truck in the desert east of Swan Falls Dam in the early morning hours of May 29, according to an Ada County Sheriff’s Office news release.
Tully and a 15-year-old boy who was a passenger in the truck were not wearing seatbelts when it rolled. Both were thrown from the truck, the release said.
The 15-year-old suffered serious injuries in the crash and was taken to a local hospital by air ambulance. Tully was pronounced dead at the crash site.
A 16-year-old boy in the truck sustained minor injuries.
The crash occurred just before 5 a.m. on May 29.
The boys were at a graduation party in the desert nearby when they decided to go for a drive east of the Swan Falls/Moore roads intersection, the ACSO release said.
Tully was driving on a dirt desert road when he lost control of the pickup as it was going around a corner.
Deputies estimate he was driving about 49 miles an hour on the desert road when he crashed. The 16-year-old boy who was not badly injured called 9-1-1.
Deputies found the crash site a short time later and called for the air ambulance.
Deputies interviewed other teens at the party and developed evidence there had been drinking at the party earlier that night, when some of the teens left to get more alcohol, the release stated. Investigators believe that was when Dyer bought beer for the teens -- just hours before the fatal crash.
Ada County prosecutors issued the misdemeanor arrest warrant for Dyer earlier this week.
Authorities said the party site where the teens were at before the crash was a remote agricultural building known as “Partypatopia” on Bureau of Land Management land. It has since been demolished.
