Five felony charges have been filed against a LaPorte man who investigators say was driving under the influence of heroin when he rear ended a minivan on I-94 earlier this month, killing a 41-year-old Canton, Mich., woman, the Porter County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said.

Jonathan E. Sanchez, 31, was charged last week with operating while intoxicated with a controlled substance or its metabolite in his blood-causing death, a Class C felony punishable by a term of two to eight years; OWI-causing death, a Class C felony; reckless homicide, a Class C felony; auto theft, a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years; and possession of a hypodermic needle, a Class D felony.

Sanchez was also charged with two misdemeanors.

According to police, at 4:32 p.m. Oct. 8, Sanchez was eastbound on I-94 at the 30.5 mile marker—approximately three miles west of the Michigan City exit—when he looked down to grab his cell phone.

When Sanchez looked up again, he found that traffic was slowing and he attempted to brake but lost control of his Ford Ranger, went left, and rear ended a minivan in which Jaya C. Patel was a rear seat passenger. Patel was pronounced dead at the scene after being extricated by Chesterton firefighters.

In his probable cause affidavit, Det. Mike Bailey of the Indiana State Police stated that several witnesses advised that the driver of a Ford Ranger later identified as the one Sanchez was driving “was weaving in and out of several lanes of traffic without using a turn signal, nearly striking three vehicles.” Several witnesses also advised that they observed one of the two male subjects in the Ford Ranger toss “a small object into the tall weeds to the south side of the roadway” after the crash, Bailey stated.

A Chesterton firefighter later searched the area by the side of the road and recovered a syringe which Sanchez subsequently admitted was his, Bailey stated.

Sanchez’s passenger at the time of the crash later gave Bailey this account. “He said that Jonathan Sanchez picked him up in Valparaiso and was giving him a ride,” Bailey stated. “He also said that he and Jonathan used heroin many times together. When Jonathan picked him up, Jonathan said to him, ‘I’m not sick any more. I got some stuff.’ He said he took this to mean that he had heroin. He also said that based on how Jonathan was acting he believed him to be high on heroin at the time he was driving.”

In a blood test conducted after the crash, Sanchez tested positive for morphine with a level of 214 ng/ml serum, Bailey stated.

Bailey also stated that Sanchez had taken the Ford Ranger without permission from his girlfriend’s grandmother in LaPorte County.

Posted 10/27/2011