On February 27, 2021, Montez Undra Tolbert Jr. was 25, a man from Bessemer, Alabama, when an afternoon drive through the Fairfield area ended in tragedy on Interstate 59/20. State troopers said two vehicles were traveling southbound near mile marker 118, close to the Valley Road exit, when they sideswiped. In the chaos that followed, one vehicle lost control, rolled off the roadway, and overturned, scattering lives in a single violent motion.
Troopers reported that two passengers were ejected and died at the scene, while two other people were taken to UAB Hospital with injuries that authorities did not immediately describe in detail. In the days after the crash, the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified the two people killed as Tolbert and another passenger, Bishop Jones of Hueytown. Even as the interstate reopened and traffic resumed its ordinary rhythm, the investigation continued in the background, focused on what had happened in those few seconds near the 118-mile marker.
Later reporting tied the deaths to allegations of impaired and reckless driving. Public case summaries and compiled reporting from the Birmingham area described Tolbert and Jones as passengers in a Chevrolet Cobalt driven by Timberland Kinte Laster of Fairfield, and said investigators concluded the driver was reckless and under the influence of alcohol and/or THC. Separate reporting also stated that Laster was charged with two counts of murder in connection with the two deaths.
Booking records show that Timberland Kinte Laster was booked in Jefferson County, Alabama on March 1, 2024. Beyond the published charge descriptions and summaries, publicly available accounts do not consistently provide additional courtroom detail in accessible form, but the case has been repeatedly framed as a fatal DUI-related crash that escalated into murder charges tied to the loss of two passengers on I-59/20 that day.
