Former Layton officer charged with homicide after deadly crash he blamed on friend

A former Layton police officer has been charged with killing a woman in a car crash that he initially blamed on a friend.

Samuel Andrew Rockwell, 26, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with automobile homicide and obstructing justice, third-degree felonies; reckless driving, a class-B misdemeanor; not having insurance on a vehicle and having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle, class-C misdemeanors; and speeding, an infraction.

According to the charging documents, early on the morning of Sept. 4, Riverton police were called to a single-car crash near 13400 S. Bangerter Highway. Rockwell — who was a Layton officer at the time — received minor injuries, as did another man in the car; a woman in the back seat was killed.

Police reported that the two men managed to get out of the wrecked car and “pointed to each other as the driver.” At the time, neither witnesses nor Utah Department of Transportation cameras were able to determine who had been driving.

Police later determined that the car, which was registered to Rockwell’s friend, had been traveling north on Bangerter at about 116 mph when it turned, veered across a concrete lane divider, flipped over a concrete median barrier and came to rest in a field.

Rieverton police initially believed Rockwell’s friend was the driver. He was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County jail. When he was taken into custody, he said, “Can’t believe [Rockwell] is making me take the fall for this,” according to police.

At about 11 p.m. that same day, police said that Rockwell arrived at the Riverton Police Department. When officers met him in the parking lot, he stated unprompted that “he was, in fact, the driver.”

According to charging documents, Rockwell went on to tell police that the other man was a front-seat passenger. He said the woman in the back seat was being “lovey dovey” with him just before the crash. She pulled his face toward hers, Rockwell said, and he drifted into the center median then lost control of the car.

According to police, Rockwell said he was telling investigators the truth because it wasn’t right that the other man was in jail, and that he had blamed his friend because he was afraid and knew he would lose his job.

Police said forensic tests later confirmed Rockwell was the driver, and that his blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit at the time of the crash.

He no longer works with the Layton Police Department, a dispatcher confirmed. The department did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

Rockwell’s first court appearance is scheduled for April 26.