Assistant Orange County District Attorney Jeff Nieman said troopers found a box of beer at the crash site and said Kania had “a strong odor of alcohol” and bloodshot eyes.
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More charges, including three pending counts of second-degree murder, could be filed once Kania is released from the hospital, Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall said.
Chandler Kania, 20, is charged with causing the crash near Hillsborough early Sunday morning that killed three people, including a 6-year-old girl.
Three people in the Suzuki were killed instantly: the driver, Felecia Harris, 49, of Charlotte; a front-seat passenger, Darlene McGee, 46, of Charlotte; and Jahnice Baird, 6, Brooklyn, N.Y., who was riding in the back seat.
UNC records indicate Kania would have been a junior in the university’s advertising program this fall.
Authorities have been granted permission to access bank account information belonging to the UNC student charged in a deadly drunk driving crash.
Kania’s mother sobbed in the courtroom as Nieman described the case against him, reports the station.
Nieman says malice was shown in the case, in part, by the distance Kania traveled in the wrong direction on I-85 before the fatal crash around three o’clock Sunday morning near mile marker 163.
Authorities said once Kania is released from the hospital.
According to the station, five people reportedly tried to stop Kania from getting behind the wheel in Chapel Hill, Nieman said.
“They tried to take away his cellphone and his auto keys”, Woodall said later.
Judge Anderson settled on bond at $1 million.
Officials have said that the state’s Alcohol Law Enforcement agency is looking into where Kania got his alcoholic beverage because he is under the legal drinking age.
“This case represents nearly unimaginable horror and loss and tragedy”, he says, “and is an indictment, in many ways, of the world we live in and the world we tolerate”.
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The only time Kania spoke at the hearing was to agree to waive his right to a public defender and to say he did not have any questions for the judge. If convicted on all charges, Kania faces 40 to 50 years in prison.
