A night of drinking and recklessness ended in tragedy on Oct. 31, when a 19-year-old Naugatuck man was killed in an accident in a which his friend was driving.
The driver of a car in which Korey Jordan was killed had opiates and other drugs in his system, was drunk and had driven his car in excess 100 mph before the crash in Seymour, according to an arrest warrant affidavit reported on by the Valley Independent Sentinel.
The driver, Mannuel Esteves, 20, of Seymour, was racing with a friend after a night of drinking at a party in the woods, the Sentinel reports.
Passenger Joseph Staffier describes a car chase with a friend in the affidavit as such: He was following the car, and "...Manny slammed on the brakes and cut back in, in front of the other car,” the warrant says, adding that Staffier estimated they were going “about 110 MPH” at the time.“
"He remembered hitting the curb and then seeing a telephone pole in front of them,” the warrant states. “He saw Manny turn the wheel to the left and the tires had no grip and they just right into the pole. He said he knew there was no way they were going to avoid the pole and remembered thinking they were all going to die.”
The Seymour Police Department said Esteves had a blood alcohol level of about .16 at the time of the accident; in Connecticut, the legal limit for someone under 21 is .02 and for someone 21 or older is .08.
Esteves, who appeared at court today, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless driving and driving while intoxicated.Read the full story on the Sentinel's website here.
