When Caleb Levi Hendrix, 34, told investigators his brakes had locked up as he swerved to avoid a motorcycle, one detail from the crash scene told a different story. The only skid marks on the road belonged to the victim’s father’s vehicle, which came upon the scene of the crash after it happened.
Hendrix pleaded guilty Friday, August 14, 2026 to vehicular homicide in the first degree in the death of motorcyclist Michael Burnett. A related charge of driving under the influence was merged into the homicide count as part of the plea.
The crash happened July 30, 2023, on Riggins Mill Road. Hendrix’s pickup truck was traveling south while Burnett’s motorcycle was heading north on the same road when the two vehicles collided. Emergency crews responded, but Burnett’s injuries were too severe, and he died at the scene.
Shortly after the crash, Hendrix told investigators he had been driving from Dorothy Drive when he saw the motorcycle approaching near the center line, and that his brakes locked as he tried to steer left, sending his truck into the motorcycle’s lane. A sergeant trained as a drug recognition expert observed signs of impairment, including droopy eyelids and a blinking pattern in which Hendrix’s eyes did not fully close. Hendrix agreed to a voluntary blood draw, and testing later confirmed amphetamine and methamphetamine in his system.
There were no witnesses and no camera footage of the crash, and heavy rain washed away much of the roadway evidence in the hours afterward. When a traffic fatality investigator returned to the scene, he found no skid marks anywhere, and no physical evidence consistent with brakes locking the way Hendrix described. Investigators instead found a furrow on the roadway shoulder consistent with Hendrix’s truck briefly leaving the road before he steered back and struck Burnett’s motorcycle in Burnett’s own lane. Investigators found no evidence that Burnett contributed to the crash.
“This defendant got behind the wheel of a truck with methamphetamine and amphetamine in his system, crossed into oncoming traffic, and killed Michael Burnett,” said Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Howard. “Then he told investigators a story about locked brakes that the evidence at the scene simply did not support. Now a family is without someone they love. This crash shows exactly why driving under the influence of drugs is so dangerous.”
Hendrix was sentenced to 15 years, with the first 10 to serve, with credit for time served. The judge sentenced Hendrix to mandatory substance abuse treatment as a special condition of his sentence.