HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — A UNC-Chapel Hill student accused in a wrong-way crash that killed three people has been released from jail.
Killed were 49-year-old Felicia Harris and 46-year-old Darlene McGee, both of Charlotte, and 6-year-old Janiece Smith, of New York. A 9-year-old suffered serious injuries.
Chandler Michael Kania, 20, posted his $1 million bond and left the Orange County courthouse Tuesday. Defense attorney Roger Smith Jr. said Kania will be under house arrest in his home in Asheboro.
Kania was driving drunk, prosecutors said.
Connie McGee's sister died in the wreck.
"She was the voice for the family, if anything was going on big sis had it," she said.
Darlene McGee, Smith and the child were on their way back from a memorial service in Virginia for McGee's mother.
Darlene McGee was holding the urn with her mother's ashes at the time of the crash.
Kania faces multiple charges, including second-degree murder and felony death by motor vehicle.
"What were you thinking?" Connie McGee said. "Obviously you weren't thinking. He was a junior in college, he had his whole life ahead of him but he chose to drive drunk and take my sister."
Kania used a fake ID to buy alcohol at two businesses within hours of the crash, and his friends tried unsuccessfully to stop him from getting behind the wheel, prosecutors said.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol said Kania was driving north in the southbound lanes near the split of I-85 and Interstate 40 in Orange County July 19 when his Jeep Wrangler collided with a Suzuki.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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