Teen to be tried as adult in joyride death

PHILADELPHIA â€" For the first time since his son was killed in a car accident last month, Bruce Fouracre of Bensalem saw the person being held responsible â€" a 14-year-old boy.

“He didn’t appear to me like he felt any remorse,” Fouracre said outside the city’s Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday.

Fouracre had just attended the preliminary hearing to review the case against Winston Charleston, the teen who allegedly went joyriding in his mother’s Chrysler only to smash it into the Volkswagen carrying Dan Fouracre. The 22-year-old graduate of Bucks County Technical High School was pronounced dead at the scene in Northeast Philadelphia. His girlfriend, Jessica Feldman, 20, who was driving, survived.

Dressed in a pink polo shirt and track pants, Charleston sat quietly in the Philadelphia courtroom. Two of his friends testified that they pleaded for him to slow down that night. A Philadelphia police officer testified that, based on tire marks, the Chrysler was traveling 85 mph at the time of impact at Academy and Willits roads.

Following the 90-minute hearing, Philadelphia Judge David C. Shuter ordered the case to trial. Charleston is being charged as an adult with third-degree murder and a long list of related counts.

The third-degree murder charge alleges that Charleston, who is known as “Ray,” acted with reckless indifference to human life. It carries a sentence of 20 to 40 years if he’s found guilty.

Akquil Harrington said he was spending the night at Charleston’s house in Tacony when the two took the keys to Charleston’s mother’s Chrysler.

Sitting in the witness stand, Harrington wore a cast on one arm and another on a leg while his jaws were practically wired shut from his injuries sustained in the June 30 car accident.

He said he doesn’t remember everything but he did recall telling Charleston to slow down during the beginning of the drive, a request that Charleston granted. But later that night, he said he remembers another passenger, Blair Bowes, telling Charleston to slow down and telling Charleston that the cops were behind them.

“The next thing I remember is the hospital cutting my pants off,” Harrington said.

Blair testified that he asked Charleston to let him out of the car.

“I think we all said ‘stop,’ “ Blair said.

State trooper Christopher Holdeman testified that he saw the Chrysler zooming up I-95 at a significant rate of speed, weaving through traffic with its headlights off. He said he followed the car, catching up to it right after the accident on Academy Road.

Philadelphia police Officer Thomas O’Neill testified that his investigation later found that Charleston lost control of the car when he tried to turn at a speed of 85 mph.

James Lyons, Charleston’s defense attorney, tried to argue that his client didn’t act recklessly enough to merit a murder charge. He said the appropriate count is vehicular homicide or manslaughter because Charleston wasn’t showing the kind of conscious disregard for human life required by case law.

But prosecutor Bridget Kirn disagreed, saying that everything Charleston did was reckless â€" from ignoring his friends’ pleas to driving without the headlights on to ignoring the police following him with their flashing lights on.

After the hearing, Lyons said he’s going to request that Charleston be tried as a juvenile.

“Obviously, the defense attorney didn’t have anything to fight with,” Bruce Fouracre said after the hearing, which was attended by more than a dozen of Dan Fouracre’s friends and family.

“(Charleston) was going to do what he was going to do,” Bruce Fouracre said. “And now he’s going to face the consequences.”

Charleston remains incarcerated in lieu of $600,000 bail. His formal arraignment date in city court for trial is Aug. 10.

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