Homer man sentenced to 3 years in prison for fatal DUI crash on Sterling Highway

A 22-year-old man was sentenced last week to more than three years in prison for killing a friend while driving drunk on the Sterling Highway in December 2021.

Tyler Cordes pleaded guilty in August to criminally negligent homicide, assault and driving while intoxicated. A charge of second-degree murder was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Homer Superior Court Judge Bride Seifert in a hearing last Thursday accepted the plea agreement and sentenced Cordes to 14 years in prison with 10 years and eight months of that suspended.

The crash killed 25-year-old Drew Brown, who was ejected from the pickup after it hit a snow berm and rolled in the air before colliding with a telephone pole near Homer Middle School, according to the Homer Police Department.

Cordes initially told investigators that Brown was driving, police said. Another person in the truck was also ejected and hospitalized for treatment of her injuries, Homer police Lt. Ryan Browning said this week. A fourth person in the pickup fled the scene, he said.

Investigators were able to establish Cordes was driving using surveillance video from a Homer liquor store that showed the group buying alcohol minutes before the crash, Browning said. Cordes could be seen driving away with Brown in the back seat, he said, adding that several other cameras between there and the crash scene also showed Cordes in the driver’s seat.

Cordes told investigators he drank three-quarters of a bottle of vodka and one or two other drinks that night, Browning said.

After the crash, no one provided first aid to Brown, he said.

Cordes was indicted on criminal charges in September 2022, roughly 10 months after the crash. Cordes was living in Las Vegas when he was indicted and was extradited from there, according to the Homer Police Department.

Drew Brown’s younger sister, Lyndsay Brown, said she doesn’t think the sentence Cordes received was long enough, but she was relieved her family will not have to sit through a trial. Cordes will be on probation for seven years after he is released from prison.

Drew Brown was a gifted athlete, a person who was easy to talk to, and someone who was passionate about those he cared about, she said.

Brown said she hopes her brother’s death highlights the consequences of drinking and driving.