News

4-time DWI motorist sentenced to prison

Justin Cody Moore

By Lightning Reports, Published: May 7, 2026

A 34-year-old Brevard man arrested four times for drunk driving over a year’s time was sentenced last week to six years in prison in two of the DWI cases, District Attorney R. Andrew Murray announced on Tuesday.

Justin Cody Moore pleaded guilty on April 30 to two counts of driving while impaired as well as driving while license revoked after a prior DWI conviction, producing an invalid license from out of state, failing to stop at a steady red light, fail to maintain lane control and failure to wear a seatbelt. The sentence in Superior Court upheld the same sentence Moore received last August for two DWI arrests in 2024. 

On Oct. 24, 2024, State Highway Patrol troopers responded to the report of a crash on U.S. 64 at Old Homestead Road in Horse Shoe. Upon arrival, troopers located a 2002 Ford registered to Justin Moore, with a completely crushed cabin. Troopers determined through eyewitnesses and a reconstruction investigation that Moore ran off the roadway, flipped his motor vehicle and was ejected. Moore admitted to consuming two beers and declined to take standardized field sobriety tests. Troopers arrested Moore and obtained a blood draw pursuant to a warrant revealing a result of .24, which is three times the legal limit in North Carolina.

On Dec. 6, 2024, the Highway Patrol responded to a report of a motor vehicle collision at Kanuga and Price roads in Hendersonville. Responding troopers determined that Moore had run a steady redlight and T-boned a vehicle occupied by Andrew Ogden, his wife Arianna, their 2-year-old son, and Ogden’s sister, Avery Ogden. The entire family was transported to the emergency room by ambulance with a variety of injuries. Troopers noted Moore emanated a strong odor of alcohol and exhibited multiple signs of intoxication. Prior to submitting to a breathalyzer test, Moore told troopers that he was completely sober. His breathalyzer test revealed a blood alcohol content of .17, more than twice the legal limit.

Superior Court Judge Craig Croom sentenced Moore to the maximum sentence allowed by law for each DWI count. The remaining counts were consolidated with the DWI convictions. Croom sentenced Moore to consecutive active sentences of three years each, for a total of six years. That was the same sentence District Court Judge Kim Gasperson-Justice imposed last year. Moore's attorney had appealed the sentence, arguing that he had been sober since wearing a court-ordered CAM bracelet, or continuous alcohol monitoring device.

Ellen Pitt, a member of the Western North Carolina DWI Task Force, in general argues for harsh sentencing for repeat DWI offenders. But she said in this case, Moore had shown that CAM bracelets work.

“It’s my understanding he wore the CAM bracelet for 502 days and had zero violations," she said. "That usually will go a really long way to mitigate a sentence but for some reason in this case they did not use that as a mitigator. ... We’re on pilot project No. 3 over here and that’s the kind of success we have every time" a judge or magistrate orders a defendant to wear a pretrial CAM bracelet. "It’s 99 percent successful.”

Murray, the D.A., said Moore's sentence was up to the judge's discretion. 

Assistant District Attorney R. Talmadge Reeves handled the prosecution and sentencing during the Superior Court hearing. Murray thanked State Highway Patrol troopers Johan Ayala-Trejo and Samuel Ledford for their professional and thorough investigation of the cases.  

Moore's other two DWI arrests came in 2023 and 2024:

• On Dec. 10, 2023, in Polk County, Moore was charged with driving while impaired and communicating a threat against a Polk County sheriff’s deputy. He registered a .21 BAC in a breath test. Moore received a six-month suspended sentence on the charge in January 2025.
• Ten days after the rollover DWI in Horse Shoe, on Nov. 3, 2024 Moore allegedly registered a .18 BAC reading after he rear-ended a car stopped at a red light on N.C. 108 in Columbus. He was charged with driving while impaired, failure to reduce speed and reckless driving. The breath test reading was .18. In April 2025 Moore was sentenced to seven days in jail, then a suspended sentence, community service and nine-month probation.