By Barry Porterfield
Just days after sitting in a Pauls Valley courtroom as the defendant in a drug-related case, a woman formerly living here was killed in a two-vehicle accident late last week.
Killed was Audra Lee Viola Rico, 31, who was alone in a vehicle struck last Friday by a tractor-trailer on U.S. Highway 81 in far southern Grady County.
Rico was the previous week bound over to face a jury on a drug trafficking charge after a preliminary hearing in Garvin County District Court.
The scene was far different when at a listed time of 2:29 p.m. Friday Rico’s 2000 Ford Mustang, traveling southbound on U.S. 81, is reported by state troopers to have gone over the road’s center line.
Next Rico’s vehicle struck just behind the driver’s side door of a 1996 Freightliner traveling the opposite direction.
After the collision Rico was trapped in her vehicle for about two hours before being taken out by Chickasha firefighters using the Hurst tool.
Rico was pronounced dead at the scene from massive injuries, reported Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Jason Henson of the Grady County Detachment.
Not injured in the accident was Saul Salgado-Terrazas, 43, of Oklahoma City, who was the driver of the other vehicle.
An OHP report shows both drivers were wearing seat belts when the collision occurred.
Rico lived in Pauls Valley before moving to Marlow about two years ago.
However, it was here in PV where she was arrested on Sept. 24, 2008 in what was described as one of the biggest drug busts ever in Garvin County.
Among the items found in the vehicle driven by Rico at that time was about 150 grams of methamphetamine “ice,” which is considered a very potent form of the drug.
Rico’s arrest came after she stopped her vehicle at an unoccupied residence near the local high school.
It came because of a previously issued warrant for her arrest, in addition to the tips to law enforcement authorities that led to surveillance on Rico and a number of other subjects suspected of dealing meth in the area.
She was initially denied bond before a six-figure total was approved and posted allowing Rico to be free as long as a monitoring device was used.
A judge listed as one of the initial reasons for no bond was the fact Rico was possibly involved in a murder investigation in Dallas, Texas at that time.
Rico had been questioned by Dallas detectives for the alleged homicide of former Wynnewood resident Christopher Cain, 33, in August 2008. She was interrogated in Texas but released without any filed charges.
