{"id":22090,"date":"2026-03-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=22090"},"modified":"2026-03-19T06:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:09:13","slug":"valley-city-fatal-hit-and-run-suspect-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/valley-city-fatal-hit-and-run-suspect-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley City Fatal Hit-and-Run Suspect in Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barnes County (trfnews.i234.me)<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 A 22-year-old man faces charges in a deadly hit-and-run case near Valley City.<\/p>\n

First Court Appearance<\/h2>\n

Garrett Kuntz<\/strong> made his first court appearance Thursday in Barnes County District Court. The case involves a fatal crash along Interstate 94.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say Kuntz hit a man who was walking west of Valley City. The crash happened early on December 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the victim was a 27-year-old man from Honduras. His body was found later that day in a ditch.<\/p>\n

Kuntz is charged with manslaughter. He also faces a duty charge in an accident involving death.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, bail was set at $50,000. Kuntz is due back in court on April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Garrett
Garrett Kuntz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Investigators Allege<\/h2>\n

The charges stem from a case that began before sunrise on I-94 in Barnes County. Investigators say the victim was walking when he was struck.<\/p>\n

The body was found later that same day. The discovery led to a deeper investigation into what happened.<\/p>\n

Officials said an anonymous tip helped lead investigators to Kuntz. That tip became a key step in the case.<\/p>\n

The court hearing marked the first public appearance in the criminal case. It also set the next date in the legal process.<\/p>\n

For now, the charges remain allegations. Kuntz is presumed innocent unless he is proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n

What Comes Next<\/h2>\n

The case has drawn attention in Barnes County because of the deadly outcome. It also raises new questions about safety on rural interstate roads.<\/p>\n

Court records and future hearings may provide more detail. That includes how investigators built the case after the body was found.<\/p>\n

Readers who want updates can follow official public resources. Those include Barnes County court information<\/a>, North Dakota Courts public access<\/a>, the Barnes County official website<\/a>, and the North Dakota Highway Patrol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This remains an active criminal case. More details may emerge as Kuntz returns to court in April.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barnes County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A 22-year-old man faces charges in a deadly hit-and-run case near Valley City. First Court Appearance Garrett Kuntz made his first court appearance Thursday in Barnes County District Court. The case involves a fatal crash along Interstate 94. Prosecutors say Kuntz hit a man who was walking west of Valley City.… Continue reading Valley City Fatal Hit-and-Run Suspect in Court<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[15288,15282,678,2714,772,2812,15287,15283,5612,15285,15284,15286,1664,725,5885],"class_list":["post-22090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-barnes-county-court","tag-barnes-county-crash","tag-city","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-fatal","tag-fatal-hit-and-run-case","tag-garrett-kuntz","tag-hit-and-run","tag-i-94-fatal-crash","tag-manslaughter-charge","tag-north-dakota-court-news","tag-suspect","tag-valley","tag-valley-city-hit-and-run","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22747,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22090\/revisions\/22747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}