NORRISTOWN — A Spring City woman faces charges that she drove drunk, crashed her car and caused injuries to her passenger boyfriend, who in a bizarre twist of fate later died of cardiac arrest while being treated at a hospital, according to court papers.
Erin N. Miller, 22, of Ridge Road, waived her arraignment in Montgomery County Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol, DUI, reckless and careless driving and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the Nov. 1, 2009, Limerick crash that injured Brian H. Cutillo.
Cutillo, 23, of Linfield, a passenger in Miller’s 2001 Mazda 626, was injured in the one-vehicle crash that occurred about 1:48 a.m. in the 400 block of North Lewis Road and was airlifted by medical helicopter to Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia for treatment. Doctors pronounced Cutillo dead at the hospital at 2:04 a.m., according to court papers.
An autopsy determined the cause of Cutillo’s death was “bradycardic cardiac arrest” following succinylcholine administration, according to the criminal complaint filed by Montgomery County Detective John Santarelli and Limerick Detective Ernie Morris.
Succinylcholine is a drug used to induce muscle relaxation.
While Miller is charged with causing the injuries that sent Cutillo to the hospital, she is not charged with causing his death.
“In the single-car accident Erin Miller’s boyfriend suffered only a broken nose,” said defense lawyer Martin P. Mullaney, who spoke on Miller’s behalf. “It’s clear from the commonwealth’s own evidence that Erin Miller did not cause Mr. Cutillo’s death.”
Mullaney said Miller and Cutillo had been dating for about three years at the time of the crash.
“She was devastated by his death. She has no prior criminal history and no history of alcohol abuse whatsoever,” Mullaney claimed.
By waiving her arraignment, Miller did not have to appear before a judge for a formal reading of the charges lodged against her. Miller, who remains free on bail, will now be scheduled for trial on the charges.
If she’s convicted of all the charges at trial, Miller faces a possible maximum sentence of six to 12 years in jail.
The investigation revealed that Miller’s vehicle was going north on North Lewis Road when it traveled onto a lawn, the front passenger side of the vehicle striking a tree, according to court documents. The vehicle, which was owned by Miller’s grandfather, then traveled down a small embankment and rolled before coming to rest back on its wheels, investigators alleged.
A woman who had been traveling behind Miller’s car in another car told authorities that she observed Miller’s car “swerve across the center line into the other lane of travel and then come back into the northbound lane of travel” and swerve in her own lane of travel prior to the crash, according to the arrest affidavit. The witness stated she didn’t observe any brake lights from Miller’s vehicle prior to hitting the tree.
When speaking with Miller at the scene of the crash, police detected an odor of alcohol on her breath and field sobriety tests determined she was intoxicated, court documents alleged.
A subsequent blood test determined Miller had a blood-alcohol content of 0.14 percent, which is above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, according to the arrest affidavit. With the charges, authorities alleged that at the time of the crash, Miller’s alertness, judgment, perception, coordination and response time were impaired to the point of rendering her unfit to safely operate a motor vehicle.
When she was interviewed by authorities, Miller claimed that she had been driving north and she and Cutillo were having an argument.
“The next thing she knew she went off the road and struck a tree,” Santarelli and Morris wrote in the criminal complaint, adding Miller claimed she and Cutillo were talking about “stupid boyfriend/girlfriend stuff.”
Miller claimed she was in control of the vehicle and was proceeding within the posted speed limit of 45 mph, according to the criminal complaint.
“Ms. Miller stated they were talking and they never grabbed at each other while she was driving. She stated she was ‘concentrating on him and the next thing I knew we were on the opposite side of the road,'” Santarelli and Morris alleged.
Investigators concluded there were no mechanical failures or defects with the vehicle that could have contributed to the crash.
Cutillo, who was born in Phoenixville, was a 2004 graduate of Owen J. Roberts High School and a graduate of the Automotive Training Center in Exton.
