Local News

Bragg soldier charged with racing, manslaughter in fatal crash

A Fort Bragg soldier faces manslaughter charges after a drag race ended in a head-on crash that killed another Bragg soldier and his roommate in July.

Posted Updated

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A Fort Bragg soldier faces manslaughter charges after a drag race ended in a head-on crash that killed another Bragg soldier and his roommate in July.

Robert Warren Jones Jr., 21, of Lambert St., was charged Thursday with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of prearranged racing. He was released on an unsecured bond.

Police said that Jones was racing Nickolas Hayden, 21, and his passenger, Russell Zachary Snapp, 21, on Morganton Road the afternoon of July 22. Hayden lost control of his 1998 Honda Civic and crashed into a 2011 Hyundai at more than 90 mph.

Hayden, an Army maintenance technician, and Snapp, a Fayetteville native, died. The Hyundai driver, Blaine Hull, 28, and his passenger, Stevie Rivenbark, 25, were seriously injured.

Rivenbark's mother, Sharon, said seeing the car made her surprised that her daughter even survived the wreck.

"Truly, it made me sick to my stomach. I could hardly look at it and was just grateful she was even alive," she said. "It looked like a bomb went off."

Rivenbark's injuries include a broken leg, ribs and lacerated liver. She's had "a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of crying. A lot of, 'Don't let me die,'" her mother said.

Rivenbark's family is drawing close to help her recovery, which doctors expect will be long.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Rivenbark is a beauty queen, the 2009 Miss Greater Wilmington. Today, she is program director at Cape Fear Valley Health Systems in Fayetteville.

That bright future was almost lost in just moments, her mother said.

"You need to be careful and value your life, because you don't know if you are going to be here in the next five minutes," Sharon Rivenbark said.

 Credits 

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.