Driver in fatal Serra Catholic crash will stay in jail
The man behind the wheel when his Volkswagen slammed into a Serra Catholic school van last year — killing a teenager and injuring three other students — must remain in jail until his homicide trial later this year, a judge ruled Thursday.
The ruling brought audible sobs of relief from the family and friends of 15-yearold Samantha Lee Kalkbrenner, the
Serra Catholic sophomore killed when she was thrown from the van during the fiery crash.
“He’s asking for freedom, but nobody can tell me who can bring my daughter back,” Samantha’s mother, Nenita Kalkbrenner, wept after the hearing.
Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer said he believes William Soliday is too much of a danger to himself and others to be held anywhere other than in the Allegheny County Jail.
It was the second time since his Dec. 13 arrest that Mr. Soliday was denied bail.
In December, Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski made a similar ruling, arguing that prosecutors have a strong case against Mr. Soliday and he’s a danger to the community by virtue of the charges against him.
Casey White, Mr. Soliday’s attorney, said his client should be entitled to bail.
“So Judge Borkowski was wrong?” Judge Beemer asked.
“Respectfully, yes,” Mr. White said.
Judge Beemer said he had the benefit of recorded jailhouse calls between Mr. Soliday and his wife, Flanna Soliday. He said the calls indicate that, one way or another, Mr. Soliday would not return to jail if released pending trial.
In a call from March 9, Mr. Soliday’s wife, Flanna Soliday, is heard telling him that she doesn’t want to get him out on bail just to come home and find him dead.
“It’s not like that,” he said. “It’s not going to be like that. I’m not going to do anything before I find out. I’m not going to quit while I’m out on bail. But if I get sentenced and I got to go away, which will be right after trial or whatever it is, then I
will have an opportunity to come home but I won’t come home. It won’t happen in the home. I would never do that.”
Minutes later in the same phone call, after his wife speaks of faith and God’s plan, Mr. Soliday said: “Maybe the plan is that the family gets what they want, which is ultimate penance for my sins, and that is what they want; that is what they get, and they can move on with their life, and you get to move on with your life.”
Judge Beemer said the calls “evidence a very concerning state of mind.” He ultimately agreed with Deputy District Attorney Brian Catanzarite and denied Mr. Soliday’s motion to modify his bail.
Mr. White said he was “respectfully disappointed in Judge Beemer’s decision.”
“You live 43 years doing the right thing on this earth, and an accident occurs and his life is turned upside down,” Mr. White said. “He understands what happened to the Kalkbrenner family, too, and he can’t imagine the grief they’re going through.”
Mr. Soliday, 43, is charged with homicide, illegal racing, and multiple counts of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in connection with the violent Sept. 20 crash. Investigators say he and coworker Andrew Voigt were racing at speeds of up to 100 mph along Richland Avenue in McKeesport and Dravosburg.
The men both worked at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, but police say both claim they didn’t know each other. Both men have also denied that they were racing, though witnesses who saw the men’s cars in the moments leading up to the crash said it appeared that Mr. Voigt was trying to catch up to Mr. Soliday, whose Volkswagen GTI recorded him going 107 mph in the seconds before the crash.
Mr. Voigt faces multiple charges, including reckless endangerment, illegal racing, and failing to stop and render aid. Cameras captured Mr. Voigt driving past the crash scene moments after Mr. Soliday slammed into the white school van.
Mr. Voigt is out on $150,000 bond. Mr. Soliday has been held without bail since his arrest.
In one call between Ms. Soliday and her husband in the days after his arrest, she tells him they should focus on helping him get out on bail. He said he doesn’t know if he even wants to do that, saying “I don’t think it’s worth it.” Then he told her to research the answers to several specific questions.
“I need to know that if there is something that happens to me when I’m out on bail — whether I am in an accident and I get killed or whether I commit suicide or anything, whatever that is — do you lose the house?” he said. “I have to know. OK?”
He continued: “Because it ain’t worth it. It ain’t worth it. So I can’t leave you with nothing. The only thing I can leave you with is not bringing you down with me.”
Samantha’s father, Carl Kalkbrenner, said Judge Beemer’s decision was a relief.
“Listening to everything in there, it sounded to me like this guy wanted to get out so that he can take the easy way out and not face justice,” he said. “But this way here, he’s going to face justice and whatever is going to happen as a result of that will happen.”
Mrs. Soliday testified that she’s worried about her husband’s physical and mental wellbeing. She said he suffered a concussion and myriad other injuries during the crash, and he’s missed appointments with his neurosurgeon since he has been in jail. He is also using a colostomy bag, she said, and the jail-issued colostomy products were “inferior” and caused him sores and other issues. Now she brings him supplies once a month.
Judge Beemer ultimately said he believes the Allegheny County Jail is capable of providing Mr. Soliday the care he needs. He said the recorded calls show Mr. Soliday’s attempts to deflect responsibility and blame police for the position he’s in.
In one call, Mr. Soliday rails against law enforcement officers, calling them scum who “want to imprison me over nothing.”
“That said it all,” Ms. Kalkbrenner said after the hearing. “What kind of person are you? You don’t believe in any justice? You don’t believe in any police? That said it all.”