Drunk Teen Crashes Stolen Car While Going 132 MPH!

Are teens becoming more and more brazen?  Please read the following article.

Derek Pruitt-dpruitt@poststar.comDustin T. St. Andrews, 16, leaves Washington County Court with his mother after his arraignment on Friday. Andrews was charged with 23 counts, including second-degree murder, in connection with the April 21 crash in Putnam that killed Shannon James and Michaella K. Lopes.

FORT EDWARD - A Washington County grand jury has filed second-degree murder charges against the Putnam teen who police say was driving drunk and under the influence of marijuana when he crashed a stolen car, killing two 16-year-old girls.

Dustin T. St. Andrews, 16, pleaded not guilty Friday to a 23-count indictment that included the murder counts and lesser homicide charges that include first-degree vehicular manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan agreed to free him after the arraignment with the understanding $15,000 cash bail or $30,000 bail bond was posted on his behalf by 5 p.m. Friday.

Washington County District Attorney Kevin Kortright said his office decided to seek murder charges under a section of law that accuses St. Andrews of showing "depraved indifference to human life" before the crash.

The teen is accused of driving drunk, with a blood-alcohol content of 0.12 percent, and under the influence of marijuana, when he drove a stolen 1995 Cadillac off Route 22 in Putnam the morning of April 21.

"We felt all those factors together adds up to murder," the district attorney said.

Shannon James, 16, of Ticonderoga, and Michaella K. "Mika" Lopes, 16, of Enosburg Falls, Vt., died when they were thrown from the vehicle.

The indictment alleges St. Andrews was driving 132 mph just before the crash. He also faces counts of grand larceny and burglary for allegedly going into a relative's home to steal the keys to the car and the car itself in the hours before the crash.

The indictment also accuses him of taking the car without permission on at least two other occasions, once in November and again in January.

St. Andrews was also charged with the felony of second-degree criminal sale of marijuana for allegedly providing marijuana to other teens at a party in Putnam before the crash. Felony vehicular assault counts were brought for the injuries suffered by the two passengers who survived.

Wearing a neck brace, the teen spoke quietly as he acknowledged he understood his rights as the judge explained them to him. St. Andrews' lawyer, William Montgomery, entered not guilty pleas on his behalf, and the case was adjourned until Aug. 22.

Second-degree murder charges are not unprecedented in fatal, alcohol-related car crashes in the region.

Prosecutors in both Washington and Saratoga counties have pursued murder counts in similar situations, though in both recent cases the drivers were convicted of lesser homicide counts, not murder.

Sworn statements filed in Washington County Court on Friday alleged that St. Andrews initially told Ticonderoga Police Officer Tom Ruby, the first officer on the scene of the crash, that he wasn't driving before he acknowledged he was.

"At first, he said he didn't know who was driving," Ruby wrote in a sworn affidavit.

He then told Ruby he had "drunk two or three beers," the officer wrote. St. Andrews also told Washington County sheriff's Deputy James Banish he had "a couple of beers."

"While Dustin was in the (Moses Ludington Hospital) room, he was saying that he could not believe that he had done this, and he wished that he had died," Washington County sheriff's Deputy David Buxton wrote in a sworn affidavit filed in County Court.

Court records also show St. Andrews and the other two survivors of the crash, Kristopher S. Wilson, 17, of Putnam, and Bryant R. Austin, 16, of Ticonderoga -- both of whom suffered minor injuries -- were unsure as to who one of the two girls in the crash was.

They initially told police Lopes was a Ticonderoga girl named Andrea O'Hara, but police determined the deceased teen was not O'Hara.

Wilson then told police the girl was Andrea Kelly, identifying her from a picture police showed him. So police notified Kelly's mother, who drove to Glens Falls Hospital to identify the body but found that the girl was in fact Lopes.

Kelly was the teen who Lopes was visiting in Ticonderoga for the weekend.

Neither St. Andrews nor Montgomery would discuss the case after Friday's hearing. St. Andrews was accompanied out of court by his mother, who also said she had no comment on the case.

St. Andrews was a Ticonderoga High School student before the crash but has been home-schooled since, Montgomery told the judge Friday.

Kortright said he hopes the case serves as a reminder to teens about the dangers of drinking and driving as high school graduations approach.

"Hopefully this will send a message to anyone hosting a graduation party," he said.

Washington County Sheriff Roger Leclaire said the investigation into who provided alcohol to the teens for the party was continuing. He said more charges will be filed in that regard.

"There will be more arrests in this case," the sheriff said.

St. Andrews faces up to 25-years-to-life in state prison if convicted of second-degree murder. The counts of first-degree vehicular manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter are punishable by up to 15 years in state prison.