17-year-old charged with murder of Tyler man found dead in crashed truck

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Tyler police have arrested a man in connection with the death of Michael Lee Tucker, 29, on Tuesday. Tucker was found dead inside a pickup truck that had gone off Front Street and hit a power pole.

Manuel Mendez Prieto II, age 17, was arrested Friday and charged with murder. He is being held in the Smith County Jail on $1 million bond.

The incident in which a white Ford pickup crashed into a power pole on Palmer Avenue was being treated as a homicide because it has been determined that the driver had been shot before the crash, according to the Tyler Police Department back on Tuesday.

The investigation led TPD detectives to a home in the 200 block of Palmer Avenue, where the shooting appeared to have occurred.

Police say Prieto had previously turned himself in on an unrelated outstanding warrant for Aggravated Robbery with a $250,000 bond.

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