A Cortez woman suspected of killing two people while drunken driving was charged Friday in 6th Judicial District Court with two counts of vehicular homicide.
Stacie Pierce-Green, 40, faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted on either of the two counts.
She appeared Friday in court wearing shackles and a jail-issued jumpsuit. She is being held in La Plata County Jail without bail.
Pierce-Green is suspected of sideswiping an oncoming motorcycle and killing two riders Frank Steward, 66, and Jessica Steward, 65, of Tahoe Vista, Calif.
The crash occurred about 4:45 p.m. May 22, a few miles west of Hesperus on U.S. Highway 160.
While speaking with a trooper for the Colorado State Patrol, Pierce-Green said she consumed four Bud Light beers and smoked marijuana at a friends house in Durango prior to the crash, according to an arrest affidavit.
She said she was heading home when a motorcycle came into her lane and hit her head-on.
She said she wanted to be honest about the beers and the marijuana. She denied causing the accident.
But investigators said it was Pierce-Greens driving that caused the crash.
Troopers said her green Mercury Tracer was traveling westbound when it crossed the double-yellow line by a couple of feet and collided with a 2011 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The motorcycle was traveling eastbound close to the double-yellow line, but it was in its own lane at the point of impact, troopers said.
The Stewards, who were traveling across country to meet their son, both died at the scene of the accident.
reach Shane Benjamin at shane@durangoherald.com