OKLAHOMA CITY – The state Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree manslaughter conviction of an Indiahoma man with a lengthy record of traffic violations who was involved in a fatal crash west of Lawton less than a month after he pleaded guilty to a second drunken-driving charge.
Brian Keith Neugebauer was convicted by a Comanche County District Court jury on Feb. 7, 2020, of causing the death of 17-year-old Cache High School junior Natalie Hults in a collision that occurred at Lee Boulevard and Deyo Mission Road on May 18, 2018.
District Judge Scott Meaders followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Neugebauer to
seven years in prison ordered him to pay $6,185 in restitution and assessed a jury fee of $840 (three days for 14 jurors who were paid $20 each per day).
Neugebauer, 50, argued that the victim’s “failure to stop” at the intersection was “the sole proximate cause of her death.”
However, the appellate court noted that at the time of the wreck Neugebauer was driving a truck while not in possession of a commercial driver’s license. Nor was the truck equipped with an interlock breathalyzer device – a requirement of a court order imposed on April 24, 2018, after he pleaded guilty to a second and subsequent offense of driving a motor vehicle while under the in- fluence of alcohol.
Neugebauer “should not have been driving,” the judges wrote. He “needed but did not have a commercial driver’s license” and could not get one because his driver’s license was suspended, “with limited driving privileges.” His conduct was “directly causally related to the victim’s death: had he not been driving, he would not have hit the victim’s car.”
Neugebauer also complained about evidence from his mobile telephone that the prosecutor used during the trial. A screenshot of Neugebauer’s call log was used only to refresh his memory during cross-examination about who he called – his attorney – shortly after the collision. “The cell phone material itself was not admitted” into evidence during the trial, the judges pointed out.
Neugebauer also maintained that his sentence was excessive. The appellate judges, though, said his seven-year prison sentence “was at the low end of the range of punishment,” evidence of his offenses was “undeniable,” and “the connection to the victim’s death was clear.”
Accordingly, the judgment and sentence of the Comanche County court were affirmed.
HIS EXTENSIVE TRAFFIC RECORD
Neugebauer was arrested by the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department on Dec. 22, 2008, on Meers-Porter Hill Road, on three misdemeanor charges: driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, possession of a controlled substance, and operating a motor vehicle while his driver’s license was expired. Eleven months later he pleaded guilty to all three counts.
He was fined $50 plus court costs on the traffic charge. He received a one-year suspended sentence on the drug charge and was ordered to pay court costs and assessments. On the drunken driving charge he received a one-year suspended sentence, a $600 fine plus court costs, and was required to perform 80 hours of community service.
His second drunk-driving conviction arose from his arrest in Cache in July 2016 after Neugebauer was stopped for an unsafe lane change, court records indicate. He pleaded guilty in April 2018 and received a five-year deferred prison sentence; however, that was revoked after his manslaughter conviction and seven-year prison sentence. The two terms were imposed concurrently.
Neugebauer pleaded guilty in Comanche County District Court to a misdemeanor petty larceny charge in 1993. He received a $100 fine and was required to complete 80 hours of community service.
Also in 1993, Neugebauer was cited by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for driving in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in a vehicle that had an expired inspection sticker and for failure to carry insurance on the vehicle. Two months later he was cited for speeding on old US-62.
He pleaded guilty to seat-belt violations that occurred in 1993 in Faxon, in 2003 in Lawton, March 2011 in west Lawton, November 2011 west of Lawton, and on two consecutive days in September 2014 in Comanche County.
Neugebauer also was cited by the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department in April 2014 for driving 16-20 miles per hour over the speed limit.