A 22-year-old Marietta man is facing felony vehicular homicide and DUI charges after police say he crossed into oncoming traffic on Sandtown Road and slammed head-on into a minivan, killing a 41-year-old passenger inside. Carlos Garcia was driving a 2007 Ford F-150 north on Sandtown Road approaching Booth Road on Tuesday night when he veered into the southbound lane and struck a gray 2009 Honda Odyssey carrying three people, according to the Cobb County Police Department.
The crash happened around 9:20 p.m. on August 4 in Marietta, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Keena Pierre, 41, who was riding in the Odyssey, was killed in the collision, Cobb police said. The Honda's driver, 37-year-old Kerby Pierre, was uninjured, while an 82-year-old passenger, Katie Stephens, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Garcia walked away from the crash uninjured.
According to Atlanta News First, arrest warrants state that officers detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Garcia at the scene and observed that his eyes were bloodshot and watery. Garcia admitted to drinking two Modelo beers just before getting behind the wheel, the warrants say.
Charges Stack Up Against Marietta Driver
Garcia was arrested on first-degree homicide by vehicle, DUI-less safe, failure to maintain lane, driving without a seatbelt, and driving without a valid license, per the same report. He is being held without bond at the Cobb County Jail.
Georgia's first-degree vehicular homicide statute, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-393, is a felony that carries a sentence of 3 to 15 years in prison upon conviction, according to the Wetherington Law Firm. The charge requires proof of an underlying predicate violation, such as driving under the influence or reckless driving, meaning prosecutors will likely need to establish Garcia's level of impairment at trial. Separately, driving without a valid license is a misdemeanor under Georgia law that can bring up to 12 months in jail and fines as high as $1,000, according to the Georgia Department of Driver Services.
It remains unclear whether official toxicology results confirming Garcia's blood-alcohol concentration have been completed, as such lab reports typically take time to process before a case goes to trial. The Cobb County Police Department's Special Operations Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, known as the S.T.E.P. Unit, is handling the investigation, according to the Cobb County Courier. The unit specializes in collision analysis and scene reconstruction and investigates all fatal and serious-injury crashes across the county.
A Familiar Pattern on Cobb County Roads
This is not the first vehicular homicide case Cobb prosecutors have pursued this year. In a deadly Macland Road street race, a Marietta man was charged with first-degree vehicular homicide and reckless driving following a fatal May collision that killed a motorcyclist.
Cobb County recorded 27,604 total motor vehicle crashes in 2024, including 449 suspected serious injuries and 57 fatalities, placing it among the top three counties in Georgia for traffic accidents, according to data compiled by Burrow & Associates. Drunk driving contributed to 28 percent of the state's fatal crashes in 2023, the firm's data shows, ranking as the second leading factor behind distracted driving, which was suspected in 41 percent of fatal crashes that year.
Even so, national data suggests some progress. Figures released in April by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and reported by FOX 5 Atlanta showed Georgia led the nation in reducing alcohol-impaired driving deaths, cutting alcohol-related crash fatalities by more than 100 lives in a single year.
Conviction Isn't Guaranteed, Data Shows
Despite the felony charge Garcia now faces, securing a conviction is far from automatic. A study by the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety found that between 2017 and 2021, only 37 percent of drivers cited for vehicular homicide following a DUI crash were ultimately convicted of that charge, with many cases statewide pled down to lesser traffic offenses or resolved without conviction.
Locally, Cobb County's Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic Unit, funded through Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety grants, made 384 DUI arrests out of 761 suspected DUI contacts during the 2024 grant year. Garcia remains held without bond as the investigation continues.
