By Joe Gerrety

Three years after the death of a Newtown man in a pickup truck crash, Tippecanoe County prosecutors have filed charges against the driver of the vehicle.

Kevin A. Cole, 40, of Mellott is charged in Tippecanoe Circuit Court with driving while intoxicated causing death, driving with cocaine and marijuana in the body causing death, and false informing.

Police have determined that Cole was the driver of a 1998 Chevrolet pickup truck that went off County Road 700 West south of West Point, crashed into a tree and rolled the night of June 25, 2004.

The crash killed Cole's passenger and close friend, David L. McAlister, 44, of Newtown.

"I hate to see it, but I hate to see nothing done, either," said Cody Quillen, the mother of McAlister's 9-year-old daughter.

"I'm not resentful. I forgive him for what happened," Quillen said.

Tippecanoe County prosecutor Pat Harrington, who took over the office in January, said difficulty obtaining Cole's medical records from Home Hospital explain about 18 months of the delay in filing charges. They were obtained about two months ago.

According to those records, Cole had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit for driving in Indiana, after the crash. He also tested positive for metabolites of cocaine and marijuana.

Cole was treated at the hospital for a broken collar bone and a fractured vertebra.

Witnesses who came upon the crash scene said they pulled Cole from the driver's side of the truck cab, but they found McAlister dead on the passenger side.

After he was pulled free, Cole began walking away from the crash scene until paramedics arrived. At the hospital, he told police he was not the driver.

According to an affidavit filed with the charges, McAlister's injuries were consistent with his being on the passenger side of the truck, which took most of the impact with the tree.