Ex-Navajo police officer gets 16 years for fatal DUI crash

Kevin Richard Hevel was sentenced July 13 to 16 years following a fatal DUI crash. (Maricopa County)

Kevin Richard Hevel was sentenced July 13 to 16 years following a fatal DUI crash. (Maricopa County)

PHOENIX (AP) — A 31-year-old former Navajo Nation police officer has been sentenced to 16 years for a fatal DUI crash.

Kevin Richard Hevel was sentenced July 13 by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge after previously pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2017 death of 61-year-old Peter Rankin.

Rankin was killed while bicycling after Hevel drove off a street and onto a sidewalk. Hevel then drove off before colliding with a marked police car.

The County Attorney’s Office said Hevel told police that he had “a lot to drink” and was found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.235, or nearly three times Arizona’s presumed limit of 0.08.

Hevel was fired several days after the collision.

The Navajo Nation said he had worked for the police department for 10 years.

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