Driver Indicted in Five-Vehicle DUI Crash That Killed One, Injured Four Others

May 6, 2022 – A Memphis man was indicted Thursday in a 2020 drunken-driving crash involving five vehicles and six people, including a Bartlett woman who was killed and four others who were injured, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury indicted 50-year-old Manuel DeJesus Funez-Lopez on counts of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, aggravated assault, drunken driving and reckless driving. His BAC was .133, crash investigators said.

He has been free on his own recognizance since the crash.

The crash happened shortly after 4 p.m. on March 17, 2020, when Funez-Lopez was travelling at a high rate of speed southbound on Jackson Avenue near Ronnie Avenue and struck the rear of a car driven by Andrea Neal, 28, of Bartlett.

The impact pushed her car into the northbound lanes of Jackson where it was struck by a northbound vehicle. Neal was killed and two people in the other vehicle were seriously injured.

Meanwhile, the SUV driven by Funez-Lopez continued southbound and caused another collision involving two more vehicles. A 56-year-old woman in one of those cars was seriously injured, as was Funez-Lopez.

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Vanessa Murtaugh of the District Attorney’s DUI Unit which works with law enforcement to reduce the number of DUI-related fatalities and injuries in Shelby County.