(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – a Man from Texas escaped injury, but faces charges, following a fiery crash late Thursday night, in Guthrie County. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports 26-year-old Owen Douglas Carpenter, of Tuscola, TX, was charged with OWI/1st offense, and Dominion/control of a firearm/offensive weapon by a Felon, following an investigation into the crash that happened at around 11:47-p.m., at Fig Avenue and 140th Street, in Guthrie County.

Authorities say Coon Rapids Fire was dispatched a little after 1-a.m. Friday to a fire near the Whiterock Conservancy, after a citizen reported seeing something on fire in the area, with lots of black smoke. Fire crews arrived and were able to locate the source of the fire in a ravine on the west end of a field, north of 140th Street, between Fig and Dogwood Avenue. When fire crews arrived, no one was around the vehicle, a 2019 Nissan Frontier. The vehicle was a total loss.

Photo courtesy the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office.

A Guthrie County Deputy arrived on the scene at around 2:16-a.m., Friday, and was informed fire crews located a man about 100-yards west of the vehicle in a fence row. The man was laying on his back, unresponsive, but breathing, and appeared to be intoxicated. The man was identified as Owen Carpenter. While surveying the scene, the Deputy located what appeared to be a magazine to a weapon, with a burned handgun sitting in what was the center console of the vehicle. The gun turned out to be a Glock 17.

Carpenter’s breath alcohol content tested at 0.221%. Carpenter was prohibited from possessing a weapon, following his plea of guilty to a Felony in Texas, for Possession of a Controlled Substance.