Teen’s blood alcohol level was 0.19

Erica D. Johnson and Emily Richmond

Friday, Jan. 2, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

A Henderson teen charged with involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and reckless driving in a car crash that killed three people in his car had a blood alcohol level of 0.19 -- more than nine times the legal limit for drivers under age 21, prosecutors said this morning.

At a detention hearing this morning, prosecutors said the teen's blood alcohol level was 0.19 -- significantly above the legal level of 0.02 for juveniles and more than twice the adult legal limit of 0.08. He was driving 85 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone when the wreck occurred, said prosecutor Jonathan VanBoskerck.

Prosecutors will ask Family Court Judge William Voy Monday to set a date to decide whether the teen will be tried as an adult on the felony counts. The teen was expected to be released today on house arrest. Hearing Master Thomas Fitzgerald ordered the teen to leave the house only to attend school and said he could participate in athletics.

"Whatever potential threat there is to the community has been removed," Fitzgerald said.

The 16-year-old boy was taken into custody at his Henderson home at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday and transferred to Clark County Juvenile Detention Center. The teen is charged with three counts each of involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and reckless driving.

Juvenile court punishments are typically left up to a judge's discretion. If the teen is certified in adult court, he could face two to 20 years for each of the three felony drunken driving counts and one to four years for each of the involuntary manslaughter counts.

VanBoskerck argued against releasing the teen on house arrest, saying the court needed to "send a message to every other teen in the community that we will not tolerate this stupidity and criminal conduct."

But defense attorney Andrew Leavitt said the teen had no prior record and that both he and his parents have cooperated fully with police from the start.

"He's never done anything wrong in his life except for this," Leavitt said. "There's not a bad bone in his body."

Leavitt noted that the teen had spoken at all three funerals.

His mother, who wept throughout the 20-minute hearing, addressed the court and said she had turned in her son's driver's license after the wreck. The mother said when she told her son a month ago what his blood-alcohol level had been, he replied "Mommy, I'm going to do what I have to do ... I'm going to do whatever they tell me to do."

The teen, a sophomore at Green Valley High School, was behind the wheel of his Pontiac Grand-Am when he struck a cement and cinder-block wall at 12:30 a.m. Nov. 10. Killed in the crash were 15-year-olds Travis Dunning, Josh Parry and Kyle Poff. Dunning was a sophomore at Green Valley High School while Parry and Poff were both sophomores at Coronado High School.

The driver's classmate, Cody Fredericks, was seriously injured in the wreck and has since been released from University Medical Center.

The five boys all lived within a few miles of each other and had all been close friends for years.

The police investigation focused on the boys' whereabouts in the hours before the crash, which included a stop at a house party in Seven Hills, where witnesses say alcohol was consumed. No charges have been filed in connection with the house party, police said.

Josh Parry's mother, Tina Parry, said Wednesday she was not surprised by the news of the driver's arrest.

"He drove drunk and killed three people," Parry said. "They had to arrest him."

Tina Parry said she wasn't sure if she wanted the driver to face charges as a juvenile or an adult.

"I have mixed feelings," said Parry, who has been unable to return to work since her son's death. "All I know is my baby is dead."

Tina Parry attended this morning's hearing wearing a memorial T-shirt emblazoned with photographs of the three victims -- printed after the accident by classmates. She declined to comment on the proceedings except to say "it's in God's hands.'

Kyle Poff's father, Rick Poff, said he wanted the driver to face the maximum punishment possible in adult court.

"He has got to be punished or it's not going to do anything. It won't send a message," Poff said Wednesday.

The loss of Kyle Poff is just beginning to sink in, his father said.

"Reality is setting in," Rick Poff said. "At first you're in shock because otherwise you go crazy. Then your mind gradually lets you out of that state. As time goes by it's getting more and more real that (Kyle) is really gone."