WATFORD CITY – Charges have been filed by the State of North Dakota in Northwest District Court against a Tennessee man for a Sept. 28, 2025, crash at the intersection of U.S. Highway 85 and 23rd Street, south of Watford City, in which two people died and a third person was injured.

According to court documents, Mickey Alonzo Gramley is charged with manslaughter-child victim and manslaughter-adult victim, both Class B felonies. He’s also charged with reckless endangerment-extreme indifference, a Class C felony.

A 5-year-old girl, who is not named in the complaint dated Monday, May 18, and Hannah Kocher died in the crash. Jacob Shepard was seriously injured in the crash.

According to a North Dakota Highway Patrol news release issued Sept. 29, 2025, on Sept. 28, 2025, a 2013 Ford Fusion driven by Shepard, 24, of Watford City, was traveling south on Highway 85, approaching the intersection with 23rd Street Northwest, south of Watford City. At the same time, a 2006 Peterbilt truck pulling a trailer driven by Gramley, 41, of Bybee, Tennessee, was traveling eastbound on 23rd Street Northwest toward the intersection. Gramley disregarded the posted stop sign and struck the passenger side of the Ford. Both vehicles came to rest in the southeast ditch of the intersection. Kocher, 25, of Watford City, who was in the Ford’s front seat passenger side, and the girl, who was a rear seat passenger, were pronounced deceased at the scene, according to the report. Shepard was airlifted to Bismarck. Gramley was not injured. The 5-year-old was from Minot.

The complaint filed against Gramley states Gramley recklessly caused the death of the juvenile and Kocher and willfully created a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death to Shepard “by operating a commercial motor vehicle while in violation of applicable hours-of-service requirements, driving approximately 15 to 18 miles per hour over the posted speed limit while failing to obey a stop at a busy intersection, and proceeding under those circumstances while he could not clearly see the roadway ahead, thereby demonstrating an extreme indifference to the value of human life and causing serious injury to Mr. Shepard.”

According to the North Dakota Century Code’s Penalties and Sentencing, a Class B felony carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $20,000, or both. A Class C felony carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, a fine of $10,000, or both.