Portland man sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for 2022 fatal crash
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man was sentenced Thursday in Multnomah County court for the 2022 death of a passenger in another car resulting from a crash.
Ayzaiah Walker, 25, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for the incident that occurred in January 2022 in which he was found to be driving recklessly and under the influence and caused the crash, which also injured the driver.
As part of a plea deal, Walker pleaded guilty in November of last year to multiple charges, including criminally negligent homicide, for which he was sentenced to 90 months in prison.
Walker also pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and driving under the influence of intoxicants, which each have concurrent sentences of 24 months and 60 days, respectively. He also received three years of post-prison supervision.
The victim who died in the crash was identified as 40-year-old Beaverton resident Douglas J. Kereczman.
On the evening of Jan. 20, 2022, shortly after 11:30 p.m., two cars crashed at Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard and Southeast Holgate Boulevard. The Portland Police Bureau said the driver was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, while the car’s passenger — later identified as Kereczman — was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to officials, no one was inside the other vehicle when they arrived. Witnesses reportedly saw multiple people running away from the area before police were called.
After searching the area, two people were detained nearby and a third person returned to the scene in a different car and contacted police. Walker was booked on multiple charges that same night while the other two people were not arrested.
During the investigation of the crash that night, police said a completely different driver was also arrested and accused of driving while impaired after they allegedly went into the closed-off area and nearly hit an officer