Mother Of Driver Involved In Deadly Lodi Crash Says Son Had Been Drinking

LODI (CBS13) - CBS13 has obtained documents detailing evidence and witness statements obtained at a Lodi home where a man in Tuesday's deadly crash had allegedly been drinking.

Police requested the warrant after first responders reported smelled alcohol on Ryan Morales, 28, of Lodi, as they attended to him inside of his damaged GMC Yukon. Witnesses say Morales was going 80 mph and talking on the phone when he drove his SUV through a red light at the intersection of Ham Lane and Vine Street, clipped a vehicle and caused the chain-reaction crash.

According to the warrant, at around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, officers went to the home of Ryan's parents and met Tracy Morales, Ryan's mother. When asked if her son had been drinking that day, she responded, "Yes." She says she came home from work at around 6 p.m. and found her husband, James, and Ryan playing ping-pong in the garage, which smelled like alcohol. She said she knew they had been drinking.

She left the home to get a pizza, and when she returned at around 7 p.m., Ryan and the GMC Yukon involved later in the crash were gone.

About seven hours after the crash, police returned to the home with a warrant found several empty bottles of vodka in a garbage, including a bottle that, Tracy says, Ryan and his father had been drinking while they were in the garage.

Police said it was difficult to get a statement from James because he was intoxicated.

The warrant allows police to obtain phone records and texts from Ryan's phone.

Ryan lives at in an RV located at the end of the couple's property.

Ryan remains in the hospital.