Hagerstown man wanted in fatal crash captured in New York

December 12, 2007|By HEATHER KEELS

HAGERSTOWN - A Hagerstown man wanted in connection with a June 9 car crash that killed his pregnant girlfriend was arrested Tuesday in Albany, N.Y., at another girlfriend's apartment, authorities there said.

Javaughn Allen Young, 21, was indicted Nov. 6 on a charge of criminally negligent homicide, but failed to appear for an initial hearing Thursday, according to court records.

Tuesday morning, the U.S. Marshals Service alerted the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force that Young could be hiding out with a girlfriend in Albany, Deputy U.S. Marshal Neil Sullivan said.

About 11 a.m., just a few hours after getting the call, the task force arrested Young without incident at an apartment on Forrest Avenue, Sullivan said.

"The second we found out he was here, we got him pretty easily," he said.

Young was being held Tuesday night in Albany County Jail, where he was awaiting an extradition hearing to be returned to Maryland, Sullivan said.

Young was fleeing from police with 20-year-old Kelsy Lynn Thomas in the passenger seat when he struck a parked vehicle at a speed of more than 77 mph early June 9 on South Main Street in Boonsboro, according to charging documents and an accident reconstruction report filed in Washington County District Court.

Thomas was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Unit, where she later died as a result of the crash, according to charging documents. She was four months pregnant at the time, and the baby did not survive, Thomas's mother said then.

Young was hospitalized for more than a month after the crash before he fled to Albany, Sullivan said.

He also faces charges of driving on a suspended license, driving on a highway without the required license and authorization, and attempting to elude police by failing to stop, according to court records.

The Albany Police Department assisted in the arrest, Sullivan said.

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