BUFFALO, N.Y. — A teen who was driving a stolen KIA that crashed on the Kensington Expressway killing four people last fall has pleaded guilty.
The 16-year-old male pleaded guilty with youthful offender status in Erie County Court to four counts of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, one count of Assault in the First Degree and one count of Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Third Degree.
The teen is not being named due to that youthful offender status.
Investigators say the teen was operating the stolen KIA on the inbound Kensington Expressway on October 24, 2022 when he crashed near the entrance to the Scajaquada Expressway. All five people in the vehicle were ejected.
Four of those passengers — Ahjanae Harper, 14; Marcus Webster, 19; Swazine Swindle, 17 and Kevin Payne, 16 — died from their injuries in the crash. Harper was actually the mother of an infant at the time of the crash.
A fifth passenger, a 14-year-old female, was treated at ECMC and released. She continues to recover from her injuries.
The teen offender is scheduled to be sentenced on August 17.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said with youthful offender status granted through the guilty plea, the teen will face 1-1/3 to four years in prison. If youthful offender status had denied by the judge, he could have faced up to 25 years in prison. He currently remains in the custody of the Erie County Youth Services Center.
Flynn told 2 On Your Side he is concerned about the move to grant youthful offender status.
"The chances are if he would have gone to trial and then found guilty at trial, then the judge wouldn't have given youthful offender status. From a benefit analogy, here I get it. You don't put the victims through a trial, you don't waste taxpayer dollars, I get all that. The question that I have is that worth 21 years? I would argue no," Flynn said.
Flynn says the defendant had previously been released and then remanded back to custody for not following the court's rules.
"He's already shown a propensity to not take this seriously or not to obey the rules. Four kids' lives got taken here. Four people died and kids died, and so that clearly overcomes in my mind any sentiment that you're going to have for a 16-year-old kid doing a stupid thing," Flynn said.
Flynn also acknowledges the impact of this court action on the victims' families.
"I suspect there's going to be some unhappy people here," he said.