Driver, 14, faces trial in crash that killed Bensalem man

Without his saying a word, Akquil Harrington's appearance made it clear that what began as a joyride ended as anything but.

Right ankle in a cast, right arm in a cast, left cheek bandaged, and shattered jaw wired together, Harrington hobbled to the witness stand on one crutch Wednesday to testify about his harrowing June 30 ride with friend Winston Charleston that ended in a crash on Academy Road near Willits Road that killed a Bensalem man.

Ninety minutes later, Municipal Court Judge David C. Shuter ordered Charleston, 14, to stand trial on third-degree murder and related charges in the crash that killed Daniel Fouracre, 22, and injured his girlfriend and Charleston's three passengers.

Charleston, of Tacony, was driving his mother's gold Chrysler Sebring - headlights off, speed estimated at 85 m.p.h. - when police said it drifted into opposing traffic about 2:15 a.m. and plowed head-on into a red Volkswagen Jetta, driven by Jessica Feldman, in which Fouracre was a passenger.

Defense attorney James Lyons argued that Charleston showed extraordinarily bad judgment in taking his mother's car after she went to bed about 12:30 a.m. But Lyons said prosecution witnesses failed to show the malice and recklessness needed to sustain a charge of third-degree murder.

Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn cited Charleston's speed of about 85 m.p.h. for almost two miles - estimated by a state trooper and a police accident investigator - and the fact that Charleston's three friends begged him to slow down and let them out.

Harrington, 15, said the last thing he remembered was getting into the Chrysler's front passenger seat - Charleston at the wheel - and going to pick up two friends nearby.

Harrington said they had done the same thing the night before and Charleston let him drive.

At times during questioning, Harrington became so frustrated by his memory loss that he started crying and wiped tears from his cheeks.

Charleston, a thin teen in a pink-and-gray-striped polo shirt, sat quietly through the hearing, eyes watching the ceiling or staring at the tabletop.

Once or twice he and Harrington made uneasy eye contact.

Blair Bows, 14, who was behind Charleston in the car with Harrington's cousin Shawn, 15, testified that he remembered spotting a state trooper on I-95 and asking Charleston to slow down and let him out of the car.

"Even before the cop . . . I knew it was a bad decision," Bows testified.

"Do you remember telling him you were scared?" asked Kirn.

"Yes, he was driving fast and he was underage," said Bows, whose left arm was broken in the crash.

Kirn said the autopsy report showed Fouracre, of Bensalem, died when the crash impact broke ribs and tore his aorta.

Fouracre's girlfriend, Feldman, 20, of Huntingdon Valley, sustained a broken finger and separated shoulder.

The Chrysler hit the Jetta with such force, said Philadelphia police accident investigator Thomas O'Neill, that the Sebring's transmission dropped and gouged the street surface until the car stopped.

Another southbound vehicle behind Feldman clipped the side of the Jetta trying to avoid the crash; the driver and passenger were not injured, Kirn said.

Charleston, who turned 14 just three days before the crash, is held with bail set at $600,000.

Lyons said that the case was a "tragic accident" and that he would ask to have it returned to Juvenile Court.