FAIRMONT — A Fairmont man has been sentenced to six years in prison but will serve only 180 days after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide.

Tyler Richard Byers, 28, faced a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. He was sentenced this week to 72 months, with a stay of execution up to 15 years. He was ordered to serve 180 days, and must pay a $2,085 fine.

Byers was charged with criminal vehicular homicide following a car accident in March 2018 that left a 26-year-old Fairmont woman dead.

According to the complaint:

At 12:16 a.m. March 11, Martin County Sheriff’s deputies and state troopers were dispatched to the 1000 block of Highway 263 in rural Martin County to assist at a one-vehicle rollover.

At the scene, a pickup truck was on its side in a field, several hundred feet from where it had left the roadway. Evidence indicated the truck would have been traveling well above the posted 55 mph speed limit.

Byers was discovered near the truck with obvious injuries and emergency personnel began to provide medical care to him.

Officers also found a female lying face down in the snow, later identified as Myra Ivette Guzman. She was rolled over and there were no signs of life. Guzman was pronounced dead at 12:48 a.m.

A deputy spoke with Byers and asked who was driving, and if there were other passengers. Byers did not answer, but told officers his name and that he had pain in his right shoulder.

A search warrant was obtained to collect samples of Byers’ blood. A sample was collected and sent to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Its report indicated Byers’ alcohol concentration was 0.14, and also showed Byers tested positive for THC and cocaine.

Law enforcement learned Byers and Guzman had been in a long-term relationship and they had been at Legends II, a bar in Ceylon, prior to the accident.

Later on March 11, a trooper went to the bar and spoke with the owner, who indicated that Byers had arrived March 10 at about 10:30 a.m. to participate in a pool tournament. The owner estimated that Byers drank about 10 beers throughout the day, and also believed that Byers also had been smoking marijuana all day. The owner mentioned that he and multiple bar patrons had offered to give Byers and Guzman a ride home, and provided them with a phone number for a cab. The trooper also spoke to multiple witnesses from the bar.

Officers later interviewed Guzman’s family. They indicated she had been driving the truck belonging to Byers’ employer when Byers was not around. They said she was driving the truck that morning because the vehicle she normally drives was broken down. The family explained that in order to drive the truck Guzman would have had to move the driver’s seat very close to the steering wheel because she was so short.

In their review of the truck after the crash, state troopers observed that the driver’s seat was positioned as far away from the steering wheel as possible. A trooper observed no damage to the seat track or controls, and the seat appeared to still be functioning correctly.

A trooper later viewed surveillance video from the bar, which showed Byers walking to the driver’s side of the vehicle, while Guzman walked to the passenger side.