NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Alpharetta, GA, November 9, 2025: A Texas teenager has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for the head-on collision that killed six members of an Alpharetta family during the 2023 holiday break. Nineteen-year-old Luke Garrett Resecker learned his sentence this week in a Johnson County courtroom, nearly two years after prosecutors said he crossed a double yellow line while impaired by marijuana and slammed into a minivan carrying seven people.
The crash happened on December 26, 2023, on U.S. Highway 67 near Cleburne. Inside the minivan were members of the Potabathula and Ponnada families, who lived in Alpharetta and were visiting Texas. The collision wiped out three generations: 36-year-old Naveena Potabathula; her children, 10-year-old Kruthik and 9-year-old Nishidha; and her parents, 64-year-old Nageswararao and 60-year-old Sitamahalakshmi Ponnada. A 28-year-old relative, Rushil Barri of Irving, Texas, also died.
The only survivor, 43-year-old Lokesh Potabathula, lost his wife, children, and in-laws in the crash. He was left paralyzed from the waist down and continues to face a long and difficult recovery.
Resecker’s passenger, 17-year-old Preston Glass, also suffered life-changing injuries. Glass sustained a severe traumatic brain injury that, according to testimony, has left him mentally impaired.
Jurors found Resecker guilty of multiple counts, including intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault. Prosecutors argued that he was driving recklessly with THC products in his vehicle and crossed into oncoming traffic despite clear no-passing markings. They said the teen’s choices destroyed an entire family and left the lone survivor with life-altering injuries.
