KUNA -- A Boise man has been charged with providing alcohol to a 17-year-old boy who died later that night in a drunk-driving crash.
Cole J. Dyer, 24, was arrested Wednesday after a months-long investigation by the Ada County Sheriff's Office. Dyer faces a single misdemeanor charge of dispensing alcohol to a minor.
Seventeen-year-old Clay Tully died in the early hours of May 29, the day after he graduated from Meridian High School. Tully and other youths had gathered in the desert south of Kuna for a graduation party. At some point, Tully and two other boys decided to go for a drive.
Tully was behind the wheel when his pickup overturned going around a corner on a dirt road east of Swan Falls Dam. He and a 15-year-old passenger were flung from the vehicle as it rolled.
Tully died of at the scene. The 15-year-old boy was seriously injured and was airlifted to a local hospital. A 16-year-old passenger suffered only minor injuries, and was able to call 911.
None of the three boys was wearing a seatbelt, investigators say.
Deputies say the pickup was going about 49 miles per hour when the wreck happened.
According to the Ada County Coroner's Office, Tully's blood-alcohol content measured at .275, more than triple Idaho's legal limit for an adult of .08. He died from "severe blunt force trauma," according to the coroner.
Investigators spoke with the teens at the party and learned they had already been drinking when some of the youths left to get more alcohol. That's when Dyer bought beer for the teens, just hours before the deadly crash, investigators say.
Prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest earlier this week.
According to the Ada County Sheriff's Office, the party was held at an agricultural building on Bureau of Land Management land commonly known as “Partypatopia." The building has since been torn down.
Dyer is currently free on a $5,000 bond. If convicted, he could face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
He is due back in court Nov. 23.
