A young Texas man died in a rollover crash south of Meeteetse last week, and the driver of the truck is now facing criminal charges.

The crash occurred early Friday morning on Wyo. Highway 120, about halfway between Meeteetse and Thermopolis in Hot Springs County. Authorities allege the driver, 32-year-old Harold C. Chlarson, was under the influence of alcohol and a controlled substance at the time of the crash.

Hot Springs County prosecutors have charged Chlarson with a felony count of aggravated vehicular manslaughter plus a misdemeanor count of possessing THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

The former Cody resident, who’d recently been living in Arizona, remained jailed in Thermopolis on Wednesday, with bail set at $25,000 cash.

According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, Chlarson was heading toward Thermopolis shortly after midnight on Friday when he lost control of the 1996 Dodge Ram. The truck went off the highway, hit a dirt mound in a ditch and went airborne, rolling several times, the patrol said.

Passenger Heston Avery was partially ejected and died at the scene, the patrol said in a preliminary report quoted by other media outlets. Avery, a cowboy and rodeo athlete, had recently moved to Thermopolis, according to his Facebook profile. He was 23 years old.

In an interview at the scene, Chlarson relayed that “they had been drinking that night and were on their way home from a bar in Meeteetse,” Trooper Tarleton Capelli wrote in an affidavit; Chlarson reportedly said he lost control after “the rear end of the truck became too heavy.”

The trooper administered a series of sobriety tests and found that Chlarson had a hard time keeping his balance and following directions. For example, during a test designed to measure his eye tracking, Chlarson continuously moved his head and “made jokes and laughed several times,” the affidavit says.

A preliminary breath test put the suspect’s blood alcohol content at 0.10% — above the legal driving limit of 0.08% — but an official test administered at the Hot Spring County Detention Center put the figure at 0.06%. Wyoming law says levels between 0.05% and 0.08% “shall not give rise to any presumption that the person was or was not under the influence of alcohol,” but can be considered alongside other evidence of impairment.

Capelli said the lower alcohol reading at the jail “did not match what I was seeing roadside during my [standard field sobriety tests]” and came to suspect another substance was involved.

Authorities say they found a suspected marijuna pipe and THC wax at the scene. When asked about the items, “Mr. Chlarson admitted to smoking weed and doing dabs,” Capelli wrote.

Authorities also found a prescription for hydroxyzine, though Chlarson reportedly said he hadn’t taken the antihistamine in some time.

After securing a warrant from a judge, authorities obtained a sample of Chlarson’s blood to check for any controlled substances. Results were not immediately available, but both the trooper and the Hot Springs County Attorney’s Office believed there was enough evidence to allege that Chlarson was under the influence to a degree that rendered him incapable of driving safely and caused Avery’s death.

A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Friday.