The 20-year-old UNC student charged in the fatal crash on I-85 on Sunday made his first court appearance on Thursday.
Chandler Michael Kania was taken directly from UNC Hospitals to the Orange County Courthouse to appear before District Judge Charles Anderson. After being wheeled into the courtroom, Kania was served with additional felony charges including three counts of second-degree murder.
“The allegation is that he did unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously, with malice aforethought kill and murder Felicia Harris.”
Assistant District Attorney Jeff Nieman repeated those words, “the allegation is that he did unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously, with malice aforethought kill and murder” the other two victims who died in the crash – 46-year-old Darlene McGee and six-year-old Jahnice Baird.
READ MORE: Kania Family “Devastated” After Crash
Nieman announced other felony charges against Kania.
“He is also charged with three counts of felony death by vehicle,” Nieman adds. “He is also charged with felony serious injury by vehicle, allegation being he did cause serious injury – two broken bones in the lower left leg and a broken right collarbone to the person of Jahnia King.”
The nine-year-old King is the lone surviving passenger from the 2007 Suzuki Kania’s vehicle collided with.
via Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Kania’s mother sat in the back of the courtroom, sometime audibly crying, along with his father.
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.
“Based on eyewitness accounts, he was traveling that direction of travel for – we believe at this time – at least six miles,” he says. “At least one witness indicates that he was going ‘not slow.’”
“Those vehicles [driven by Harris and Kania] met basically perfectly head on.”
READ MORE: Head-On Collision on I-85 Kills Three
Nieman adds after the crash the 20-year-old from Asheboro gave officers the I.D. of another individual, who was over 21 years of age. He says Kania went to at least two bars before the accident and others with Kania the night of the crash attempted to keep him from driving his 2005 Jeep Wrangler.
“There are eyewitness accounts of his behavior from earlier in the night in which at least one and as many as five people, before he decided to get in the vehicle in Chapel Hill, attempted to physically restrain him,” he says, “and that he fought physically with at least one of those people – knocking at least one of those people to the ground.”
Nieman says another person attempted to take his keys but was unsuccessful before ultimately taking Kania’s cell phone in hopes to keep him from leaving.
Nieman called Kania a danger to himself and others as well as a flight risk and asked the judge to set the bond at $1.5 million.
Judge Anderson settled on bond at $1 million.
“This case represents almost 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.”
If Kania does post bond, the judge imposed conditions that Kania submit to electronic house arrest, not to consume alcohol, submit to a curfew between eight o’clock at night and eight in the morning, and have no contact with investigators, victims, or possible witnesses in the case.
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 could face between 40 and 50 years in prison.
Kania’s attorney was not present at the hearing and a court review to ensure he has legal counsel is scheduled to take place on Monday.
