Driver charged with DUI in fatal Horsham crash

A 19-year-old Ambler man had consumed five times the legal driving limit of alcohol and was going as fast as 103 miles per hour when his car careered out of control in Horsham Township on Aug. 6, killing two friends, police said Wednesday.

Connor J. McNicholas, of the 1100 block of Bryant Court, was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide while driving under the influence and one count of DUI in connection with the crash.

Robert Nagle, 19, of Ambler, and Edward Coombs, 19, of Horsham, died in the accident on Witmer Road near Wade Avenue. Two others in the car were injured.

"As we see all too often, this is another case where the combination of teenagers, alcohol, and speed" proved deadly, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said in announcing the charges at a news briefing Wednesday with Horsham Police Chief Robert H. Ruxton.

At the arraignment that followed, McNicholas pleaded not guilty. He was accompanied by his parents and attorney, Peter J. Scuderi, who was not available for comment.

District Justice Paul N. Leo ordered McNicholas sent to the Montgomery County prison in lieu of $500,000 cash bail.

Under the state's mandatory sentencing guidelines, McNicholas could be facing a minimum of six years behind bars - three for each of the two vehicular-homicide charges, according to Ferman.

She said McNicholas lied to investigators, saying that he drank "maybe one or two beers," and that he didn't know the car's occupants but was just dropping them off at the home of a friend, "Chris Long."

"Long" does not exist, Ferman said. The five buddies had been drinking spiced rum and apple and pear brandy at a house about two miles from the crash scene.

Open containers of each were found near the wrecked Honda Civic, according to an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint.

Lab tests showed McNicholas had a blood-alcohol level of 0.117, the document said.

Under Pennsylvania law, 0.02 blood-alcohol content is the driving limit for people younger than 21. For those 21 and older, it is 0.08.

"He told investigators he had a few beers," Ferman said, "but his blood-alcohol level was five times the legal limit."

Ruxton said the crash happened at 1:19 a.m., when few cars were on Witmer Road. The Honda was speeding west when McNicholas failed to negotiate a curve in a 25-m.p.h. stretch east of Wade Avenue.

The car crossed the eastbound lane of Witmer, a yard, and Wade Avenue before it sheared off a tree and came to rest around another tree in a corner yard at 600 Wade Ave. The car covered 405 feet while out of control, Ferman said.

Only McNicholas was wearing a seat belt, she said. Nagle, in the front passenger seat, and Coombs, in the middle of the backseat, were dead at the scene of head injuries.

Two other passengers, Darryl Neville Jr., 18, and Timothy Kurpiel, 19, climbed out of the wreckage and were treated for injuries at Abington Memorial Hospital.

No one else was charged in connection with the accident or the drinking party that preceded it, Ferman said.