Driver Indicted on Homicide, DUI Charges

Jan. 26, 2022 – A Memphis driver was indicted Tuesday on criminal charges including vehicular homicide and drunken driving related to a two-vehicle crash in East Memphis that killed one person and injured two others, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich. 

     A grand jury indicted Christopher O. Walker, 34, on counts of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, aggravated assault, driving under the influence, and reckless driving. He is free on $3,500 bond. 

    The incident occurred around 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2020, on Poplar Avenue near South Perkins when Walker’s eastbound Dodge Charger slid sideways into opposing traffic and was struck broadside by another vehicle.

    Walker’s front-seat passenger, 28-year-old Joseph Cortez Johnson, was critically injured and another passenger sustained cuts to his forehead. A 40-year-old woman in the other vehicle suffered multiple broken bones in her foot. 

   Johnson was taken to a hospital where he died a week later from his injuries.

   The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Vanessa Murtaugh of the District Attorney’s DUI Unit that prosecutes all DUI cases in the Criminal Court and works with law enforcement to reduce the number of DUI-related fatalities and injuries.