A third person has been indicted in connection to a December car crash that killed four Maine Maritime students.
Noelle Tavares of Massachusetts was indicted Friday by a Hancock County Jury on 13 counts, including four counts of manslaughter and criminal OUI, among other charges.
Tavares, who was 20-years-old at the time of the crash, was one of three people who survived the crash. Joshua Goncalves-Radding of New York, who was driving the car, and Dominic Gecoya of Massachusetts, who owned the car, were indicted on the same charges.
The charges against Gecoya have since been dropped, according to WABI.
The crash occurred just after 2 a.m. on Dec. 10, 2022. Seven students were in the vehicle traveling south on Route 166 when it left the roadway and hit a tree before “erupting into flames,” Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said at the time.
Seven MMA students were in the vehicle when it hit a tree and burst into flames, police have said. Goncalves-Radding was estimated to be driving between 106 and 111 mph at the time, Robert Granger, district attorney for Hancock County, said previously.
Although it’s unclear why Tavares was charged, Granger said earlier this year that state law allows criminal charges for those involved even if they weren’t driving under a provision known as accomplice liability.
Killed in the crash were Brian Kenealy, 20, of York; Chase Fossett, 21, of Gardiner; Luke Simpson, 22, of Rockport, Massachusetts; and Riley Ignacio-Cameron, 20, of Aquinnah, Massachusetts.