Driver in fatal crash begins jail sentence
Accident claimed life of standout Spring-Ford wrestler, injured others
WEST CHESTER » The driver of a car that crashed into a utility pole on a North Coventry highway in a collision that claimed the life of a wellliked standout high school wrestler has been sent to state prison to begin his sentence for the drunken-driving fatality.
Connor Aidan Quinn entered pleas of guilty to felony charges in the crash and was sentenced to 4 to 8 years in jail as part of a plea agreement that was accepted by Chester County Common Pleas Court Judge Allison Bell Royer.
Quinn, 20, of East Coventry, was led from the courtroom in handcuffs after the proceeding, at which family members of the deceased, a friend of Quinn’s with whom he had been drinking at a high school athletic trainer’s home in Pottstown, spoke about the impact his death had on them.
Quinn also spoke, apologizing for his actions which led to the death of Louis “Louis” Carbajal, who had graduated a few months before the crash and who was set to attend Kutztown University before his death.
Royer sentenced Quinn on one count of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, two counts of aggravated assault while DUI, and a single count of DUI. The plea agreement was negotiated between Assistant District Attorney Justin Roberts and attorney Evan Kelly of the law firm of Bellwoar & Kelly of West Chester.
The judge recommended that Quinn be allowed to serve his sentence at SCI Chester in Delaware County, which has special programs for drug and alcohol recovery.
The investigation into the facts surrounding
the fatal crash also led to the arrest in August of Kelsey Anne Martin, the Owen J. Roberts athletic trainer who had befriended Quinn and Carbajal, and who allegedly let them drink beer on her back porch the morning of the incident.
Witnesses said one of those involved — there were two other teens in the car when Quinn lost control of it and slammed into the utility pole — was too intoxicated to walk on their own before getting in Quinn’s 2012 Acura.
Martin is currently awaiting trial in Montgomery County on charges of furnishing liquor to minors. She is not charged in the fatality.
According to authorities, the fatal crash occurred on Aug. 10, 2020, at 5:40 a.m. in the 1200 block of South Hanover Street, not far from
Owen J. Roberts or Quinn’s home. When police arrived, they found Quinn to be pinned behind the steering wheel and he had to be extricated by first responders.
Passenger, Benjamin Bulich, 18, of Spring City, was found sitting by the rear section of the vehicle while another teen, Daniel Benasutti, 18, of Pottstown, had left the scene and was taken to Pottstown Hospital Tower Health by his mother. Carbajal, 18, of Pottstown, was found lying on the ground and was unresponsive. Police administered first aid to Carbajal until relieved by Goodwill Ambulance Medics.
North Coventry Police Cpl. Andrew James Zinger, who investigated the crash and filed a criminal complaint against Quinn, said alcohol cans were observed in the Acura and that Quinn admitted to first responders that he had been drinking prior to getting behind the wheel. His blood-alcohol level was later found to be 0.17, twice the legal limit.
Carbajal died on Aug. 17 due to injuries sustained from the motor vehicle crash.
The on-scene investigation revealed that the Acura was traveling north on South Hanover Street at a high rate of speed. Quinn, the driver, failed to negotiate a left curve in the roadway steered the vehicle into a counter-clockwise slide. The Acura continued off of the east side of the roadway, and then north and west across the northbound lane.
The Acura continued to travel north and west crossing over the southbound lane, off the west side of the roadway striking a utility pole on the driver’s side, just behind the rear passenger door.
The Acura broke the utility pole at the base and the vehicle split in two.
A subsequent investigation by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office determined that all four had left Martin’s residence along Center Avenue in Pottstown “just minutes prior to the crash,” police said.
Detectives alleged the investigation determined the four males went to Martin’s residence sometime after midnight on Aug. 10.
One of the males told detectives he knew Martin because she was the athletic trainer at Owen J. Roberts High School, according to court papers.
“The four males sat out on the back deck at Martin’s house. According to Martin, she drank with them and supplied them with beer,” police alleged in the arrest affidavit.
One of the 18-year-old males told detectives that he fell asleep on the deck. According to court documents, detectives obtained a photograph, labeled “Wake up,” of the male, “who appeared to be passed out from drinking on Martin’s deck with what appears to be a Miller Lite in his left hand.”
“Detectives showed Martin the photograph and Martin admitted that this was taken on her deck,” Glauner alleged.
The four males drank on the back deck of Martin’s residence until sometime around 5 a.m., detectives alleged.
One of the males told detectives “he needed to be woken up and helped to the vehicle due to his level of intoxication,” according to the arrest affidavit.
During the investigation, one of the males told detectives that he and another of the males previously had gone to Martin’s house on another occasion during the summer after they had graduated from high school and that Martin provided them with beer to drink. The two males drank beer with Martin before sleeping over at her residence, according to court documents.
Carbajal and Quinn were well-known for their successes with the wrestling programs at their respective schools.
Carbajal was a 2020 graduate of Spring-Ford High School and was accepted under scholarship to Kutztown University to study Elementary Education. He was an award-winning wrestler, coming in eighth in Pennsylvania and first in the region. He was a PAC 10 champion in his weight class and a runner up in regional and district finals. Carbajal was a volunteer with special needs children at upper Providence Elementary.
“Louie was known as a vibrant, strong, loving, and joyful young man. He was hard working and never shied away from a challenge, both in the classroom and on the wrestling mat,” the school said in a statement after his death.