Cove Road crash

By Tyler Treadway

STUART — Information released Tuesday by the State Attorney’s Office paints a tragic and dramatic picture of events leading up to the Aug. 4 crash on Cove Road in which three teenage boys were killed.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports, interviews with witnesses and photos provide evidence that Nicholas Coady and Christopher Briglio, both 18, and Connor Graver, 16, had been drinking before they arrived at a party at the Palm City home of assistant South Fork High School baseball coach David Wayne “Bubba” Harper, 28, and Craig D. Frick, 24.

That evidence was key in the state’s decision not to charge Harper and Frick with manslaughter. Instead, the two have been charged with the second-degree misdemeanor of having an open house party. If convicted, the men could be sentenced to 60 days in jail, six months probation or a $500 maximum fine.

Several witnesses told investigators Coady, Briglio and Graver arrived at the party with open cans of beer. Others also told investigators they saw the three drinking beer from red plastic cups that were sold at the party for $10 each.

Brandie Koors, Coady’s girlfriend, told investigators: “Nick only had to pay $5 because he was extra special or something.”

Nicholas Coady, 18, Connor Graver, 16, and Christopher Briglio, 18, died at about 2 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009, after the SUV they were in slammed head-on into a John Deere front-end loader at a construction site at Cove Road and U.S. 1.

Coady, Briglio and Graver died after the Jeep Coady was driving slammed into a front-end loader on Southeast Cove Road. The loader was working as part of a road construction project south of Stuart. They were traveling at 71 mph at the time, more than twice the 35 mph posted limit.

Koors was with the three before and after the party, she told investigators, but Coady dropped her at her home before the accident.

“We started fighting and stuff,” she said, “ ’cause he wasn’t driving the best, and I was yelling at him to pull over so I could get the keys.”

Coady didn’t let her drive, she said, because the power steering in his car wasn’t working.

FHP in September released blood-alcohol tests indicating all three youths were impaired at the time of the crash. Coady had a blood-alcohol level of 0.251, more than three times the legal limit for an adult. Troopers found beer cans in the Jeep.

Jeffrey Lopopolo, a friend of Coady’s, admitted to authorities he had bought an 18-pack of beer and that Coady, Briglio and Graver drank some of the beer at his house before they went to the party at Harper and Frick’s on Coquina Cove in Palm City.

But Koors told investigators: “There wasn’t drinking at Jeff’s house, but on the way from Jeff’s house to Bubba’s house, umm, they had the beer.”

According to a statement in the State Attorney’s Office investigation, two people in a car arriving at Harper’s “were almost hit by another vehicle coming around the wrong side of the traffic circle. … The occupants of the other vehicle were Nicholas Coady, Chris Briglio and Connor Graver.”

Koors said “the maximum amount of consumption” was at Harper’s house.

“Everyone from the baseball team and all like Nick’s friends (were there),” Koors said. “It was a keg party, and they paid $10 a cup to drink out of the keg.”

Koors said “David Harper and his roommate (Frick)” collected money to drink from the keg.

But some witness statements contradict others.

According to an FHP report on the incident, George A. Norelli told an investigator Coady, Briglio and Graver arrived at the party “with beer in their hand … and Bubba told them, ‘I don’t want you drinking here’ … and they threw it away … . They were still impaired.”

Several people interviewed by State Attorney’s Office investigators said they didn’t see a keg of beer at the Harper-Frick party or party-goers drinking from plastic cups. Another said Coady, Briglio and Graver did not appear to be intoxicated.

Norelli said Harper asked the three if they had a designated driver, and Koors replied, “I don’t drink, and I’m driving back.”

But Coady was behind the wheel of the 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee when he, Koors, Briglio and Graver left the party and after he dropped Koors at her home.

Minutes later, the Cherokee collided with a 1995 John Deere front-end loader driven on Cove Road by Pedro Perez-Espinoza.

Perez-Espinoza told FHP he was westbound on Cove Road when he saw car headlights that “appeared to be far away.”

He dropped the load of dirt he was carrying and “looked to the right, and the car was coming at a high rate of speed.”

No skid marks were found at the crash scene, and a lab report found no alcohol or drugs in Perez-Espinoza’s system.

Tags: alcohol, car, crash, death, Florida Highway Patrol, Martin County, Schools

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 10:11 am and is filed under Crime, Martin County, Palm City, Traffic, treasure coast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.