MT. UPTON – New York State Police are continuing the investigation into a fatal Bainbridge accident involving five area teens, and their findings could raise the severity of the charges currently facing the driver.
Police believe that the driver, 17-year-old Trebor E. Hoxie of Norwich, was under the influence of alcohol at the time of accident. The incident took place at about 5:55 a.m. Saturday along Route 206 in the Town of Bainbridge.
Hoxie was treated for minor injuries at Lourdes Hospital and charged with second degree vehicular manslaughter. He was arraigned in the Town of Bainbridge Town Court and remanded to the Chenango County Correctional Facility in lieu of $200,000 cash bail. He is scheduled to appear back in court today at 4:30 p.m.
“If he’s convicted of the highest possible charge, there is a possibility he could do up to 25 years in state prison depending on the results of the blood-alcohol test and the results of the accident reconstruction,” said Chenango County District Attorney Joseph A. McBride.
Although Hoxie is currently charged with a manslaughter, a D class felony carrying a sentence of up to seven years, his crime could be raised to a B class felony with a maximum 25 year sentence, depending on two variables, McBride said.
The D.A. said that if Hoxie’s blood alcohol content was above .18 percent, more than double the legal limit in New York State, and if police’s reconstruction of the accident showed he was driving in a “dangerously reckless manner,” consistent with a reckless endangerment charge, then he could potentially face the B felony.
Hoxie has been appointed Public Defender Kayphet Mavady as his attorney. Mavady said Wednesday he had not yet met with his client and had not received any information on test performed on his client’s blood.
Hoxie voluntarily offered his blood for an alcohol test at Lourdes Hospital following the accident, reported police.
The Gilbertsville-Mt. Upton District Office released a statement Tuesday saying that each of the five teens involved in the fatal Bainbridge crash did at one time or another attend G-MU High School.
“On Saturday, April 18, we were made aware that there was a car accident involving five of our present or former Gilbertsville-Mount Upton students,” said Superintendent Glenn R. Hamilton.
Three of the teens were listed in seriously or critical condition early Saturday, but have since been upgraded to fair condition, said a spokeswoman with Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center in Johnson City Tuesday.
G-MU senior Ashley Crisell, 18, of Guilford, suffered major head trauma in the accident and was pronounced dead at Wilson on Saturday.
