GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. 鈥� A Cohasset man admitted to having approximately 15 alcoholic drinks in the hours before he crashed his ATV into a power pole, killing a friend, according to court documents.
Authorities said 21-year-old Joseph Jeffrey Riley registered a blood-alcohol concentration nearly twice the legal limit after the incident that killed Dylan Robert Christy and injured Alexander Michael Rajala, both 21 and of Grand Rapids.
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Riley allegedly told deputies he swerved to avoid a deer when the crash occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday on County Road 459 south of Cohasset. He acknowledged that he spent the night drinking at a number of bars around Grand Rapids, according to a criminal complaint.
The Itasca County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the crash at 2:17 a.m. A deputy and ambulance crew attended to Christy, who was airlifted to Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth, where he was pronounced dead.
Riley was uninjured. Rajala, who suffered a leg strain and some bruises and scrapes, was treated at Grand Itasca Hospital.
Riley was arraigned Tuesday, May 14, in State District Court in Grand Rapids on a felony charge of criminal vehicular homicide and a gross misdemeanor count of criminal vehicular operation.
