RALEIGH -- Police found a shot glass and an empty plastic bag they think contained marijuana in the wreckage of a Jeep Grand Cherokee in which a 17-year-old Millbrook High School student was killed last month, according to search warrants made public today.
Garrett Lane Prince lost control of the Jeep at 70 mph on Rainwater Road, knocked down a mailbox and crashed head on into a pine tree shortly after 2 a.m. on Jan. 7. The Jeep burst into flames.
Prince had been ejected from the vehicle. Two people pulled out his passenger, Elizabeth Molloy, but emergency workers pronounced her dead at the scene.
Police charged Prince with felony death by vehicle, driving while impaired, provisional driving while impaired, careless and reckless driving, speeding, possession of alcohol, and possession of marijuana. He had a blood-alcohol concentration of .29; under North Carolina law, a blood-alcohol concentration above .08 is considered impaired.
Molloy had a blood-alcohol concentration of .12, according to a toxicology report released last week by the N.C. Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill.
According to the search warrants, Raleigh police searched Prince's LG mobile phone on Jan. 12 to try to determine the events that led to the crash. Investigators wanted to search the phone for incoming and outgoing calls as well as text and email messages, court documents show.
Authorities have charged four others in connection with the accident. Hannah R. Smith, 18, was charged with hosting an underage drinking party that Molloy and Prince attended; Anthony Du Juan Geter, 21, was charged with buying two bottles of rum for a group of teens, with the help of Samantha M. McKinney, 17, and an unidentified 15-year-old.
Agents with the state alcohol law enforcement division said all of the teens, including Molloy, pooled their cash to buy the rum for a party at Smith's North Raleigh home.
