Former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Kelvin Joseph is facing a second-degree felony charge and a misdemeanor DWI count after police say he crashed his BMW into a motorcycle on U.S. Highway 75 in Richardson, Texas, before dawn on June 7, 2025, killing 27-year-old Cody Morris. Joseph, 25, drove nearly three miles from the crash site before pulling into a Plano auto repair store parking lot, where he waited almost 40 minutes before calling 911, according to a police arrest warrant affidavit.
The timeline of Joseph's movements after the crash comes from a police affidavit made public in June 2025, as reported by WFAA. Police reported that no suspect vehicle remained at the scene when officers first arrived at 4:51 a.m. Joseph later called authorities and reported that he had been involved in the accident, according to Business Upturn.
When officers located Joseph, they observed signs consistent with intoxication. An affidavit made public in June 2025 indicated that officers noted bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, saw Joseph lean on his vehicle for balance, and found a smoked marijuana blunt inside the BMW after he failed several field sobriety tests, according to FOX 4 News. Joseph reportedly told officers that the motorcyclist had cut him off before the crash, per the same account.
A Mother of Two, Killed on Her Way Home From Work
Cody Morris, a 27-year-old Plano resident, was riding her motorcycle home from work when the crash occurred. She was a mother of two young children, ages 7 and 4, and relatives shared that her husband was on the phone with her at the time of the crash, according to CBS News.
The early morning crash caused the Texas Department of Transportation to shut down all northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 75 in Richardson for more than three hours, with traffic reopening around 8:45 a.m. that same morning. Joseph posted bond and was released from the Richardson City Jail on Sunday, June 8, 2025, after bail was set at $25,000 for the felony collision charge and $1,000 for the misdemeanor DWI charge, the station's report notes. Family members of Morris publicly criticized the $26,000 total bond amount as too low.
Felony Carries Up to 20 Years Under Texas Law
Joseph faces a second-degree felony charge for leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death, formally known as Collision Involving Personal Injury or Death, under Texas Transportation Code Section 550.021. That charge carries a statutory sentence of 2 to 20 years in state prison upon conviction, along with potential fines of up to $10,000, according to the Law Office of Bryan P. Hoeller. He also faces a separate misdemeanor DWI charge tied to his intoxication at the scene.
A wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than $10 million was filed in Dallas County court on June 24, 2025, alleging that Joseph and two Dallas-area clubs, The Lodge and The Dive on 75, acted with gross negligence leading to Morris's death. The suit alleges Joseph was overserved while visibly intoxicated at the clubs, though at least one establishment has publicly denied he was a patron. Whether toxicology results have been finalized and whether a grand jury will take further indictment action in the case remain open questions.
From Cowboys Draft Pick to UFL Roster Under Scrutiny
Joseph, originally from Allen, Texas, was selected in the second round, 44th overall, of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys out of the University of Kentucky, having begun his college career at LSU. He was drafted between Cowboys teammates Micah Parsons and Osa Odighizuwa, according to Pro Football Rumors. He played 26 games and started three for the Cowboys before stints with the Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota Vikings practice squad, and a brief offseason run with the Kansas City Chiefs.
At the time of his arrest, Joseph was an active roster player for the UFL's DC Defenders, who were scheduled to play the St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL Conference Championship game the following day. The UFL released a statement acknowledging awareness of the arrest while declining further comment, according to the Associated Press. Joseph had played nine games with seven starts for the Defenders this season, and his future in football is now uncertain as the legal case unfolds.
This is not Joseph's first brush with a high-profile Dallas investigation. In July 2022, Dallas police cleared him of criminal charges after questioning him as a person of interest in a March 2022 drive-by shooting that killed 20-year-old Cameron Ray, determining Joseph was an unarmed passenger in the vehicle at the time. Police later arrested two other men from Louisiana in connection with Ray's murder, according to 247Sports.
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