Man charged in fatal 2007 DWI crash facing DWI charges again
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A 27-year-old man who pleaded guilty in a fatal drunken driving crash as a teen has been arrested again for driving while impaired.
Christopher John Palmeri was arrested Monday morning after crashing his car on Ligon Mill Road in Wake Forest.
Police said the Raleigh man was intoxicated and they found marijuana in his car.
Nine years earlier, a then 18-year-old Palmeri was under the influence of alcohol and going 72-miles per hour in a 35-mile per hour zone when he lost control of his vehicle on Wakefield Plantation Drive in January 2007.
The crash killed 18-year-old Sadiki Young, a Wakefield High School student.
After pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, a Wake County judge sentenced Palmeri to five months in jail and 300 hours community service which included speaking to children about driving while impaired.
However, Palmeri has faced several charges since then.
In 2013, Palmeri was charged with violating his parole after allegedly failing a drug test.
According to court records, he tested positive for opiates, marijuana, and admitted to using heroin and Vicodin.
Before that in 2009, he was rearrested on charges accusing him of taking three cases of Bud Light from a Harris Teeter store.
Palmeri's rap sheet includes other drug and reckless driving charges dating back to 2005.
