PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driving force charged with killing NHL hockey participant Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural street had a blood-alcohol stage of .087, above the .08 authorized restrict in New Jersey, a prosecutor mentioned Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, have been killed close to their childhood residence in South Jersey on Aug. 29, the night earlier than they have been set to function groomsmen at their sister Katie’s marriage ceremony.
The driving force, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of close by Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of demise by auto, together with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motorized vehicle. At a digital court docket listening to Friday, a decide ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a historical past of alleged street rage and aggressive driving.
“‘You have been most likely driving like a nut like I all the time let you know you do. And also you don’t hearken to me, as a substitute you simply yell at me,’” his spouse informed Higgins when he known as her from jail after his arrest, in accordance with First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The protection described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen earlier than the 8:19 p.m. crash.
“He’s an empathetic particular person and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” mentioned protection lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a superb particular person and he made a horrible resolution that night time.”
Higgins informed police he had 5 or 6 beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol whereas driving, in accordance with the legal criticism. He additionally failed a area sobriety take a look at, the criticism mentioned. A prosecutor on Friday mentioned he had been ingesting at residence after ending a piece name at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting dialog together with his mom a few household matter.
He then had a two-hour telephone name with a pal whereas he drove round in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn mentioned. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going simply above the 50 mph velocity restrict, generally tailgating, the motive force informed police.
When she and the automobile forward of her slowed down and moved left to go across the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered proper, hanging the Gaudreas, the 2 different drivers informed police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” mentioned Superior Court docket Decide Michael J. Silvanio, who mentioned Higgins’ admitted “impatience” prompted two deaths.
Higgins faces as much as 20 years in jail if convicted, a sentence that the decide mentioned made him a flight danger.
Higgins has a grasp’s diploma, works in finance for an habit remedy firm, and served in fight in Iraq, his legal professionals mentioned. Nonetheless, his spouse mentioned he had been ingesting frequently since working from residence, Flynn mentioned.
Johnny Gaudreau, generally known as “Johnny Hockey,” performed 10 full seasons within the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He performed his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included turning into one of many sport’s prime gamers and a fan favourite throughout North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as connected on the hip all through their lives. Each girls predict, and each gave shifting eulogies at a heart-wrenching double funeral on Monday.
“I urge everybody to by no means drink and drive,” Madeline Gaudreau mentioned. “Name a journey. Please don’t put one other household by means of this torture. The lack of Matty and John will depart a gap within the household, together with his shut associates, the neighborhood for eternity.”
Protection legal professionals, in searching for bail, prompt that Higgins may very well be restricted to driving solely with a locking machine to forestall him from ingesting and driving. They usually famous that he examined simply over the authorized restrict, including {that a} latest knee surgical procedure doubtless impacted the sector take a look at.
However Flynn argued that the locking machine wouldn’t cease what he known as “the basic difficulty” of Higgins’s “indignant and aggressive driving,” exacerbated that day by alcohol.
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