MADD: Suspect faked obituary

ALBUQUERQUE, April 14 (UPI) -- A defendant in a fatal drunken driving case tried to escape prosecution by publishing a fake obituary in New Mexico, Mothers Against Drunk Driving said.

Byron Shane Carpenter, 30, was arrested Wednesday after MADD's Albuquerque office received a tip that his obituary last month in the Albuquerque Journal was a fake, KRQE-TV, Albuquerque, reported Tuesday.

"We were quite surprised when we found out that death notification had been filed," MADD Executive Director Lora Lee Ortiz said. "We received the tip last week and within a day and a half he was in custody."

U.S. marshals said Carpenter was found hiding under a pile of rocks outside Capitan, N.M.

Carpenter is charged with homicide by vehicle, great bodily injury by vehicle and aggravated driving while intoxicated. The charges stem from a 2006 crash that killed a woman and left her stepfather severely injured.