A 19-year-old man has been arrested on charges of killing two teens while driving drunk in Horsham Aug.6.
Connor McNicholas of Ambler was charged with two counts of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Wednesday.
McNicholas was driving when he crashed the 2007 Honda Civic carrying five teens. Two of the teens, Robert Walker Nagle, 19, of Ambler and Edward Taylor Coombs, 19, of Horsham, died in the crash.
After an initial investigation, police said the Civic that McNicholas was driving left the roadway at Norristown and Witmer roads and struck a curb, but kept going, crossing over Wade Avenue. The car continued through a yard there, striking several trees before finally coming to a stop at a larger tree, 405 feet away from where it initially left the road.
Two liquor bottles were found at the scene and McNicholas’ blood alcohol content was five times the legal limit for a 19-year-old -- .117, according to Ferman.
Police say that McNicholas lied to them several times during the investigation, saying that he didn’t know the teens in the car and he made up a fake friend who had the party at which the kids were drinking.
Police say that the teens were drinking secretly at a house in the area.
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The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office will not be handling the case because one of the teens who died, Coombs, was a summer intern there. The case is being handed over to the Attorney General’s office, Ferman said.
His attorney entered a not guilty plea in court.
Each homicide charge carries a mandatory 3-year prison sentence. Bail was set at half a million dollars.