17-year-old Luke Lessecker crashed his Chevrolet Silverado into the minivan of a Georgia family celebrating the holidays in Texas, essentially killing eight people.
A devastating head-on collision on December 26, 2023 left six family members dead. The seventh family member, a doting father left paralyzed and the only survivor in the minivan, lost everything he loved. And then there’s Resecker himself.
A jury recently sentenced Rezecker, who tested positive for THC, to 65 years in prison for the crash, one of the harshest penalties ever for driving under the influence of marijuana. If Mr. Resecker serves his sentence, he will be in his mid-80s by the time he is released.
The case garnered national attention and sparked a debate about whether a prison sentence is too harsh for a teenager who made the worst mistake of his life, or whether it is the only just punishment for the person responsible for the crash that killed so many innocent people. The film also spotlights an increasingly common area of law: intoxication manslaughter involving marijuana, a drug that will be legalized across the United States.
In an exclusive interview, USA TODAY spoke at length with Rezecker’s attorney and the two prosecutors who tried the case to find out how the jury arrived at the heavy sentence.
Prosecutors Conor Day and Stephanie Miller of the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office told USA TODAY that one of the most powerful moments for jurors was hearing testimony from 43-year-old Lokesh Potavasula, the sole survivor of the minivan crash who was left paralyzed and lost his two children, wife, cousin and in-laws.
“He said when he woke up in the hospital, the last thing he remembered was talking to his daughter in the back seat,” Day said. “The next time someone told him his family was dead, all he could do was move his head. He just begged to die.”
Alan Steele, one of Rezecker’s attorneys, told USA TODAY that while the case is heartbreaking, “the punishment does not fit the allegations.”
“This accident was caused by a child making a poor left turn,” Steele said. “He tried to overtake on the road and we had a terrible crash and a person died. It’s a tragic, unfortunate, terrible thing and I can understand the jury’s desire to see someone punished for the fact that a person died. But it’s still an accident. It doesn’t rise to the level of criminal liability.”
Here’s what else you need to know about this case, including who Resecker is, details about the lives lost, and why the punishment in this case stands out among similar cases across the country.
Chaos and death on a two-lane Texas highway
It was December 26, 2023, and Lokesh Potavasra was celebrating the holiday with his 36-year-old wife Naveena, 11-year-old son Kruthik, 9-year-old daughter Nishidharaman, and his in-laws Nageswarao and Sitamaralakshmi Ponnada.
Lokesh’s cousin, Lucille Bali, 28, drove her family to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in her Honda Odyssey, where they could see giraffes, zebras, emus and other animals. “They had a great day,” Day said.
They were on their way back to Bali’s home in Arlington, Texas, and at the same time Luke Rezecker and his friend were driving through the area.
At some point, Resecker left his lane on Route 67 and crossed a double yellow line. Investigators said the man was trying to pass the car in front of him, but defense attorneys argued he was trying to turn left onto Route 1119.
Whatever his intentions, oncoming traffic was not clear. Rezecker’s truck, which was traveling at about 105 mph, collided head-on with the Lokesh family’s minivan, which was traveling at 125 mph.
All but Lokesh, Lesseker and Lesseker’s friend died, but all three sustained life-threatening injuries. When Lokesh first regained consciousness, he was only able to move his head and is now permanently paralyzed. Rezecker suffered a traumatic brain injury, was in a coma for five days, and had to have a missing part of his skull replaced. His friend also suffered from a traumatic brain injury.
Texas Highway Patrol troopers found THC wax and marijuana in Resecker’s truck. Prosecutors said his blood test came back positive for THC (10 nanograms per milliliter of blood). In states such as Colorado and Washington, the legal limit for drivers is 5 nanograms per milliliter, while in states such as Texas and California, there is no lower limit for what can be considered an impaired person.
Steele said the THC in Leseker’s system “is not in and of itself evidence of intoxication,” and that under Texas law the standard of proof “is to show that he must have lost the normal use of his physical or mental faculties as a result of drugs, alcohol, or both.”
The evidence shows no such thing, Steele said, adding that Rezecker was driving into the setting sun around a partially blind curve. Steele added, “He just didn’t see this minivan.”
The family who died in the accident was living the American dream.
Lokesh Potabasula and Novina Potabasula came to the United States from India about 10 years ago in search of a better life, according to prosecutors Day and Miller. According to the Hindustan Times, the family is from the state of Andhra Pradesh on India’s southern east coast.
Lokesh received a work visa and his family set up home in Atlanta. Lokesh had been working in the same IT company for 20 years and Novina was a housewife. Day and Miller said their 11-year-old son, Kurtik, was good at math and liked building robots, and their 9-year-old daughter, Nishidarama, was a kind and outgoing girl with many friends. Novina’s parents lived with the family.
Lokesh told the jury how close they all were. After work on Friday, we went home and spent the night together watching a movie. Saturday and Sunday were also devoted to family time.
Lokesh was “very proud of his son” and his daughter “was the light of his world,” Day said.
“This is really a situation of a good family who did nothing wrong, and that’s what makes it so heartbreaking,” Day said. “They really were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
From high school students to prison inmates
Resecker was only 17 years old at the time of the accident. Steele said he was still in high school and working at a restaurant. Now 19 years old, he graduated from online high school and earned his diploma.
Rizecker is no stranger to tragedy. Steele said his father died by suicide when he was just 11 years old, adding that his father hanged himself in prison after learning his wife was filing for divorce due to repeated domestic violence issues.
A few years later, Rezecker’s brother also died by suicide, Steele said. “There’s a lot of trauma for a child that young.”
Mr. Lessecker remains close to his sister and his mother, who works as a surgical technologist at a local hospital. Family photos include the family smiling broadly, some with Rezecker’s older brother, and others just holding a photo of him.
What happened in Luke Rezecker’s trial?
Rezecker was charged as an adult because Texas is one of only three states where a 17-year-old is considered personally criminally responsible, according to the Interstate Juvenile Commission.
During Rezecker’s trial this month, jurors heard from police who testified about the cause of the crash, a toxicologist who spoke about the THC in Rezecker’s system, and a medical examiner who spoke about the violence of the crash. They also viewed body camera footage from witnesses and police that showed the chaotic and graphic aftermath of the accident.
Day and Miller said the most emotional moment was when Lokesh testified about the impact the accident had on his life.
At the end of the trial, jurors found Rezecker guilty of second-degree manslaughter, a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence, and first-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury. In a move that baffled both prosecutors and defense attorneys, the jury found Mr. Redzecker not guilty of intoxication manslaughter.
Because it was a first-degree felony, the aggravated assault that resulted in Lokesh’s injuries carried the most punitive sentence of five to 99 years in prison. Mr. Day said that without that charge, the jury could have simply sentenced Mr. Redzecker to probation.
The jury learned of Mr. Redzecker’s traumatic past but apparently dismissed it.
No matter how tragic, “you can’t use something like that as a crutch,” Miller said. Day said Rezecker’s past was “absolutely terrible,” but also pointed to the deaths of his two children in accidents.
“They are children, and now they are dead and they are not doing anything,” he said. “They leave the earth and never see their father again. That’s the result of what Luke has done.”
Mr Steele said Rezecker had no recollection of the accident or how it happened, but was filled with remorse.
“Obviously he feels terrible. A lot of people have died,” Steele said. “But it was an accident.”
How does the Luke Rezecker verdict compare to other similar cases?
A review of news coverage of fatal marijuana poisonings shows that while penalties for this issue vary widely, Lessecker’s sentence is particularly harsh.
In April, for example, in New York, a man who caused a “marijuana-fueled accident” that killed three young women was sentenced to 4 1/2 to 13 1/2 years in prison. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said the man was speeding up to 160 mph and racing through traffic before the 2022 crash.
An Indiana man was sentenced in March to seven years in prison for a crash that killed a 19-year-old in 2020. The man admitted to smoking marijuana before the accident, the USA TODAY Network’s Star Press reported.
And in Bakersfield, California, a man under the influence of marijuana and possibly alcohol was sentenced to just two years in prison in 2018 for causing a head-on crash that killed a teacher and her unborn daughter, KBAK-TV reported.
In similar cases in Illinois, Florida, Arizona, and Ohio, prison sentences ranged from 12 to 20 years.
Steele said one reason he believes Rezecker received a 65-year sentence is because Johnson County is often known for high prison sentences. When asked about the incident in Bakersfield, he said, “The first thing any Johnson County resident will tell you is that Texas is not California.” “They will be proud of that disparity.”
On the more punitive side of the issue, Jack Dillon Young was sentenced to 55 years in prison for crashing his pickup truck into a church bus outside San Antonio, Texas, killing 13 people in 2017. Prosecutors said Young had been smoking marijuana and taking prescribed antidepressants before the accident, NPR News reported.
And in California, Davion Demetrius Murphy was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for causing a crash that killed three family members in 2018. He was charged with smoking marijuana before the crash, running a red light and driving 138 mph in a 40 mph zone, according to the appeals court.
Still, Resecker is likely to serve longer than either of them.
What happens next?
Rezecker is appealing his 65-year prison sentence and has until the end of this month to do so.
Day and Miller affirm the verdict.
“Our office is not happy about what happened. It’s tragic. But do we absolutely believe that it was right and justice?” Day said. “yes.”
If Redzecker’s 65-year sentence survives the appeals process, he will not be eligible for parole for another 30 years, or until he is 49 years old.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
