Prosecutor: Failed suicide attempt caused innocent man’s death in crash; man gets 55 years for murder

DANVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — A man’s attempt to kill himself by driving the wrong direction on a highway has resulted in a decades-long prison sentence after he killed an innocent man in a head-on crash instead.

Danville resident Cody Albert was sentenced to 55 years in prison following a jury trial that lasted for three days.

Investigators said Albert intentionally drove the wrong direction on a highway, striking a car driven by Coatesville resident Thomas Plasters. Plasters, 51, was pronounced dead on the scene.

“Mr. Plasters was simply driving his vehicle on U.S. 40 as he had done many times before and now, he’s gone forever,” Hendricks County Prosecutor Loren Delp said in a statement. “He had a wife and kids that loved him very much. Mr. Albert had family of his own that will be affected by this crime too, but it was Mr. Albert’s conscious choice to take the life of someone he never met rather than get counseling or crashing into a tree, light pole or anything else.”

Albert was convicted for murder and operating a vehicle with a controlled substance in the blood resulting in death.

Investigators say that Albert was eating lunch while on break from work on Sept. 24, 2018 when he got in an argument with his girlfriend about Albert smoking all of their marijuana earlier in the day. Albert returned to work in Avon, arrived in the parking lot, wrote a suicide note, then drove toward Plainfield.

Witnesses said Albert stopped his vehicle on westbound U.S. 40, turned into a highway crossover, then started driving in the wrong direction in the eastbound lanes. He was speeding and had nearly hit several cars before crashing head-on into a Honda Civic driven by Plasters, killing him.

Albert was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries before being arrested on Jan. 18, 2019.