Friends of 21 year old Michael Bentley said what started as a happy get together to say goodbye a Marine who was heading to Iraq ended in tragedy late Sunday Night.
Sargent Kim Smith, with the Grapevine Police Department, said driver of a Ford Focus was allegedly drunk when he lost control of his vehicle and smashed into a sign at First Presbyterian Church of Grapevine.
The driver and female passenger were taken to Parkland Hospital with serious injuries.
Bentley, who was in the back seat of the vehicle, was pronounced dead at John Peter Smith Hospital.
"He was my best friend I've ever had in my whole life. He was like a brother to me," said Jess Skinner, Bentley's best friend.
Skinner said the driver of the Focus, was about to be deployed to Iraq for the first time.
Bentley and the woman in the car had been married for less than 3 months.
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"He was going to be my best man. I was his best man and he was going to be mine. It just wasn't his time to go," an emotional Skinner said as he visited the scene of the accident.
Grapevine Police said as soon as the driver is released from Parkland Hospital, he will be charged with intoxication manslaughter.
The female victim is still at Parkland with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
