A 20-year-old Arizona man has been charged with felony vehicular homicide while under the influence after allegedly crashing his pickup into a house on Rocky Cliff Drive late on the night of Saturday, June 20, killing a resident who was sleeping inside.
According to court documents, Montana Highway Patrol troopers arrived at the house, located south of Kalispell, just after 11:30 p.m. and observed a white pickup truck inside the home. A woman notified troopers that her husband, who had been asleep in the bedroom, was buried somewhere beneath a pile of debris. Troopers eventually discovered 59-year-old Robert Dale Meier, who was pronounced dead.
Troopers also discovered the driver of the pickup, Thomas Owen Lefevre, sitting on a chair in the home’s living room, “busy on his cell phone and obviously impaired.” Lefevre was driven to the Flathead County Detention Center where, according to troopers, he struggled to exit the MHP vehicle and could not complete any field sobriety tests. A blood draw was later conducted and the sample was sent to the Montana State Crime Lab for analysis.
Lefevre later spoke with an MHP trooper, identified in court documents as Trooper Horton, and admitted he had consumed alcohol and was driving the pickup involved in the crash. Horton described Lefevre as behaving erratically during the interview, saying his demeanor ranged from “talkative and concerned about his cell phone, to laughing, to using profanity, to falling asleep and snoring.” Horton also wrote that Lefevre admitted that he “f—d up and should not have been driving.”
Lefevre faces up to 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine if found guilty. He is currently being held on $500,000 bail. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 9.