A man who crashed into the fountain in front of Texarkana’s downtown federal building has been charged with intoxication assault.
Harvey Lynn Terry, 53, is accused of being highly intoxicated when his teal Nissan pickup veered into the fountain flowing in front of the downtown post office and federal building on State Line Avenue. While the truck appeared to come to rest in both Texas and Arkansas, Texas-side police handled the wreck and the Bowie County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Terry.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Terry told investigators that he and Donnie Joe Smith, 62, had consumed “a few 12 packs of beer,” at a local bar before the one-vehicle crash July 26 shortly before 1 a.m. A blood sample collected from Terry at St. Michael’s Hospital in Texarkana following the collision allegedly showed a blood alcohol level of .239 was determined by the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in a report received by Texarkana, Texas, police in September.
While at the hospital, Terry told an investigator he would rate himself as an eight on a scale of zero to ten, “with zero being not intoxicated and ten being the highest level of intoxication he could imagine for himself.” Terry allegedly reported that he and Smith had been drinking together at the Double R bar and were heading home when the truck crashed.
Smith suffered a closed head injury, bleeding of the brain and respiratory failure but survived the wreck, according to the affidavit. Smith was still being treated in the hospital as of mid-September, according to the affidavit.
Terry faces two to 10 years in prison if convicted of intoxication assault.
A lawsuit filed by Smith’s co-guardians, Carolyn Everett and Patricia Jan Jones, in Miller County in September accuses the bar of violating the law by over-serving the men and allowing Terry to leave in an intoxicated state. The Double R, also known as the International Room, has filed a response denying it is guilty of any wrongdoing.