A 19-year-old without a valid license allegedly drove drunk the wrong way down a Charlotte freeway and killed two people in a head-on crash, police say.
Kati Gissel Covarrubias-Barron was behind the wheel of a Toyota RAV4 just after midnight on October 18 when the vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic on Interstate 277 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her headlights were off. She had no valid license. And officers later determined she was impaired.
The three-vehicle wreck left two young women dead and two other people with serious injuries. Court records and police statements describe a short stretch of wrong-way driving that ended in a head-on collision, and a stack of felony charges that includes second-degree murder.
Daily Mail reporting on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department findings and Mecklenburg District Court documents laid out the sequence. Surveillance video captured the RAV4 making a U-turn onto the interstate. The SUV then traveled about a mile the wrong direction at more than 55 mph before slamming into a Hyundai.
A Chevrolet Equinox was also involved. Its three passengers were reported conscious and uninjured. The human cost fell hardest on the Hyundai.
My’Angel Vonshay Robinson was pronounced dead at the scene. Audrey Diamond Dawson was taken to a hospital by first responders and died there. Police and fire officials confirmed both deaths.
Family grief spilled onto social media almost immediately. Reco Robinson, a relative of the women, posted a raw farewell.
Reco Robinson wrote on Facebook:
"My heart is hurting right now. This one hurts bad. Please keep my family (both sides) in your prayers. My beautiful little cousins. Until we meet again. I love you both dearly,"
Another family member added a separate post:
"I really can’t believe this happened to two beautiful souls. Y’all were so full of life,"
Those lines capture what the crash took. Two people with full lives ahead of them met a wrong-way SUV in the dark.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police did not soften the core facts. In a press release, the department described the driver’s conduct in plain terms.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police stated:
"Ms. Covarrubias Barron was driving the Rav4 on the wrong side of I-277 into oncoming traffic without her headlights on and while impaired. She did not have a valid license,"
After the crash, CMPD DWI officials screened Covarrubias-Barron at the hospital and concluded she had been driving impaired. During an interview, she allegedly admitted drinking five alcoholic or mixed drinks over a two-hour period. That detail was carried in local coverage referenced in the Daily Mail account.
She was 19. North Carolina law treats underage drinking and driving as its own offense. Pair that with no operator’s license, wrong-way travel, no headlights, and a deadly result, and the case stops looking like a simple traffic mistake.
Mecklenburg District Court documents list the charges: two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of felony serious injury, driving while impaired, driving by a person less than 21 years after consuming alcohol, and no operator’s license.
Second-degree murder, in this setting, is the state’s way of treating a death caused by reckless and dangerous conduct as more than ordinary negligence. Prosecutors still have to prove their case. The charging decision already signals how seriously the system views the facts on paper.
Covarrubias-Barron was arrested and held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office Detention facility. Her next court appearance is set for November 6. The Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s office is representing her. Kevin P. Tully of that office was contacted for comment; no statement was reported.
Police say the investigation remains open. Officials have asked anyone who saw the crash, or who has information about it, to contact Detective D. Leung.
Wrong-way crashes at night are rarely a single bad second. Here the reported chain is longer. A U-turn onto the interstate. Roughly a mile against traffic. Speed above 55 mph. Headlights off. Impairment. No valid license. An alleged run of five drinks in two hours.
Each of those facts is documented by police statements, court records, or the hospital screening described in the reporting. Together they describe a driver who put everyone else on I-277 at risk long before metal met metal.
The Equinox occupants walked away conscious. Two other people did not get that chance. Robinson died where she sat. Dawson died after first responders raced her to care that could not save her.
Families are left with prayer requests and empty chairs. Taxpayers and courts will now carry the case through bond hearings, discovery, and trial dates. None of that restores the two lives lost on a dark stretch of Charlotte freeway.
When a driver drinks, skips a license, and points a dark SUV into oncoming traffic, the law is supposed to answer with certainty, and the rest of us are right to demand it.
