News

Serial drunk driver sentenced to prison

Court bailiffs lead Justin Cody Moore from the courtroom after he received two three-year prison sentences for two of his four DWI cases.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 13, 2025

Avery Ogden was riding in the back seat of her brother’s Honda Pilot on the way to visit their grandmother at Carolina Village last Dec. 6.

One car ahead of the siblings were their parents. What should have been a joyous family reunion between Thanksgiving and Christmas turned out to be anything but. That day was about to get much worse.

“We had been waiting at a red light, and my parents were the first to drive through after it turned green,” Avery said. “We took a left turn behind them through our green light at the intersection of Kanuga and Price when we were struck by Justin Moore. He sped through a red light and T-boned the center of our car as we were making our turn. He was driving about 50 mph in a 35 mph zone when he crashed into us.”

The setting for Avery’s recounting of that traumatic day was Henderson County District Court, where Moore was on trial for causing the crash that totaled Andrew’s SUV and left the four occupants with persistent injuries, pain and PTSD-like symptoms. In victim impact statements, Avery, Andrew, and his wife, Arianna, all said that the crash had left them with lasting trauma.

“As we were turning, I saw Justin coming straight at us and there was nothing that we could do. I had a moment where I did not believe I was going to survive,” Avery said as District Court Judge Kim Gasperson-Justice, other court officials and the defendant listened on Thursday, Aug. 7.

When the crash occurred last December, Moore had been charged three times previously with DWI in the span of 360 days, including two in Polk County and another on Oct. 24, 2024, when, speeding on U.S. 64 in Horse Shoe, Moore “failed to navigate a turn, overcorrected and rolled his vehicle,” as a judge put it in an order issued after a bond hearing. Moore was ejected from the vehicle and “almost crushed to death.”

In her victim impact statement, Avery, 34, expressed dismay that North Carolina’s judicial system had allowed Moore to skate on a low bond then drive while impaired again and again.

Moore “personally made me realize how terrible the drunk driving laws in North and South Carolina appear to be,” she said. “Somehow, this man was able to get away with four DWI offenses in less than one year without any adequate repercussions. Had he been punished sooner, when he should have been, this never would have happened to us. … It is truly a wonder that he did not kill anyone or himself in any of these crimes. … He is a danger to himself and society as well as a menace to your communities here.”

‘I still have nightmares’

Avery described the moment Moore T-boned the Honda in a heavy-duty Ford F-250 pickup.

“In pain and disbelief, and as I was trying to process everything and figure out how to get out of the car, Justin came up to my window and started yelling at my brother and me, blaming us for the incident,” she said. “In return, I screamed at him for almost killing a baby and my family and that this was all his fault.”

In his victim statement, Andrew described how he had to cut himself out of his seatbelt while his wife pulled their toddler out of his car seat and carried the boy to his parents’ car.

“The emotional impact of this event is something that will live with me for the rest of my life,” he said. “I will never be able to forget my own 2-year-old child screaming in fear after we were hit. My trust in others on the road been shaken. I had and still have nightmares about this event.”

Arianna also submitted a statement to the court.

“While retrieving my son I frantically looked up at my sister-in-law and husband to make sure they too were breathing,” she said. “After pulling my son out of his seat I rushed around the front of my car to see my mother-in-law rushing towards me in the parking lot located next to the intersection where the incident had occurred.”

Like her husband and sister-in-law, Arianna said she continued to suffer from the trauma of the crash.

“For the next week I lied awake in bed struggling to sleep due to being unable to close my eyes without reliving the moment,” she said. “I also struggled to eat and after multiple days of not eating enough I had to start force feeding myself in order not to feel like I might pass out.”

Avery, a surgical practice manager who paid to fly across country to be present at Moore’s sentencing hearing, told the court that she lives with the consequences of the crash constantly.

“I drive every day for my job and often long distances,” she said. “It is difficult for me to be on the road without fear of being hit by someone else. I have been in therapy regularly since this crash to help deal with the trauma. I am here to speak on behalf of all of us because I do not believe justice has been adequately served to Justin.”

‘Focused on his family, his business and his sobriety’

Moore’s attorney, Brentley Dean Cronquist of Brevard, told the judge that his client had been sober since a judge ordered him to wear a continuous alcohol monitoring (CAM) bracelet last December.

“He understands he’s made a mistake,” Cronquist said. Moore, a tree company owner who has three children and a fourth due next month, is “focused on his family, his business and his sobriety,” the attorney said.

Judge Gasperson-Justice told Moore that “you’ve done really well for the last nine months, and I commend you on that. That’s a good thing for your family, it’s a good thing for you.”

Then, turning to the facts of the crash, she said to Moore: “You didn’t even slow down, you go 50 miles an hour — it’s reckless endangerment. You hit somebody and then get out and start yelling at somebody because you were intoxicated, which is totally unacceptable.”

“You’ve got three children and you’ve got another child on the way. I can’t imagine that you would not be as upset as these family members are if somebody did that to them,” she said. “Despite the fact that you’ve done the alcohol monitoring bracelet, I don’t think I have a choice but to sentence you to the maximum 36 months.”

Gasperson-Justice then disposed of Moore’s other Henderson County drunk driving case in short order, sentencing him to the three-year maximum on that charge, too.

‘It’s a failure of the court’

Outside the courtroom, Ellen Pitt, who monitored the serial drunk driving charges as the leader of the Western North Carolina DWI Task Force, said Moore’s case underscored the need for more immediate and stronger restrictions on drivers accused of DWI.

“We have the technology,” she said. “We have CAM bracelets and you see him today. He looks sober and he’s going to prison for a long time because really it’s a failure of the court. He should have been dealt with that second one. If you get a DWI and you’ve already got one pending, everybody — the magistrates, the judges, the D.A. — should be waking up and saying, ‘This person’s dangerous. We’re gonna put pre-trial restrictions on ’em.’ It should be automatic.”

After watching Moore being led out of the courtroom to start a six-year  prison sentence, Avery and her mother hugged in the lobby outside.

“He didn’t change anything until this fourth one,” Avery said of Moore. “Yeah, I think he got what he deserved, for sure.”