Driver charged in fatal New Year’s Day accident

Marcus A. Abram. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department.

A Muncie man has been charged in a fatal Interstate 65 accident in Bartholomew County on New Year’s Day.

According to reports from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, 26-year-old Marcus Abram was recently indicted by the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death and operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a previous conviction.

Deputies say that Abram was driving more than 100 mph in the northbound lanes on Interstate 65 in southern Bartholomew County, when he struck a vehicle that had stopped in the median at just before 1:30 a.m. in the morning. 40-year-old Heather A. Wallace of Indianapolis was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Several other people were injured and it took about five and a half hours to reopen the interstate.

Blood tests showed that Abram had a blood alcohol content of more than three times the legal limit, according to police reports. However, Abram was not arrested that morning.

He was officially charged on July 11th and a warrant issued for his arrest. According to the sheriff’s department, the Intelligence Led Policing Unit asked Noblesville police for assistance finding Abram. They made contact with family members and he turned himself in last Friday.