Passenger seriously injured when alleged drunk driver wrecks car in Athens

Noah Alexander Horne

By Joe Johnson

A 20-year-old woman was seriously injured last weekend when the driver of the car she was riding in wrecked on an Athens roadway.

According to a police report, officers responded at 2:37 a.m. Sunday to a reported vehicle accident with serious injuries on South Milledge Avenue.

Upon arrival they found a 2024 Honda Civic sideways in the middle of the road near Milledge Heights, extensively damaged and with its airbags deployed.

Makiyah De Sumner was on the ground outside the vehicle, screaming in agony and apparently unable to move at all, according to the report.

She was transported by ambulance to Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center.

Makiyah De Sumner in a photo posted to her Facebook account in January 2024

The driver, 19-year-old Noah Alexander Horne, reportedly had an odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath and displayed drunken behavior.

He claimed to have consumed a can of beer several hours earlier, the report says, but later changed that to several beers and added that he had also used a THC vaping cartridge.

After refusing to take roadside sobriety and breathalyzer tests, Horne was taken to the hospital where officers executed a search warrant for a sample of his blood that will be analyzed for its alcohol content.

He was charged with driving under the influence of multiple substances, reckless driving, driving too fast for conditions, among other offenses, and was denied bail due to previous DUI cases.