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Home » News » Crime

September 04. 2012 2:31PM

Weare 18-year-old accused in fatal chase had no license

CONCORD — An unlicensed Weare teen had driven only a few times when he took his father's car early Saturday morning, drove to Laconia to pick up a young woman and then crashed it on Interstate 93 during a police chase, killing his passenger, according to court records.

Robert M. Pitts, 18, of 92 Center Road, by court order was supposed to be at home abiding by a court-ordered curfew when he crashed his father's Chevy Impala on I-93 South, left of the Exit 17E ramp in Concord. His passenger, Paige E. Garneau, 19, of Laconia, died from severe injuries she suffered in the crash.

Pitts was ordered held on $200,000 cash bail during his arraignment Tuesday in Concord District Court on charges of negligent homicide, disobeying a police officer and two counts of breach of bail. He is to return to court on Sept. 14 for a probable cause hearing and again on Sept. 27 for a trial management conference.

According to court records, Trooper Daniel Livingstone was patroling I-93 about 2:30 a.m. in Bow when a dispatcher notified him of a BOLO (Be On Look Out) for a black 2012 Chevy Impala reported stolen from a Weare residence. Police identified Pitts as the indivdual who took it and who was known to have weapons and fight police. Police believed he was heading to Laconia.

Pitts, Livingstone was told, was staying at his father's Weare home and a Merrimack County Superior Court order was in effect, requiring him to be abiding by a 7 p.m. to 6 am. curfew. He previously was charged with attempted arson and criminal threatening with a deadly weapon.

Fifteen minutes after the BOLO was issued, dispatch informed Livinstone that police — one Northfield and two Tilton police cruisers — were trying to stop the car. Instead of pulling over, the Chevy turned onto I-93 South at Exit 19. Police asked state police for assistance.

As Livingstone was heading to the area, dispatch notified him that the car had crashed at Exit 17 and an ambulance had been called. According to Livingstone's sworn affidavit, when he arrived shorly after, he saw the car had crashed into a tree to the left of the Exit 17E ramp. Pitts was in handcuffs, sitting on the grass a distance away from the car.

Garneau was lying on the ground near the passenger's side of the car, and two officers were performing CPR on her. They had pulled her from the car. She was taken by ambulance to Concord Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Pitts was also taken to the same hospital for treatment of injuries he suffered in the crash.

According to court records, Pitts said he took the car about 1:30 a.m. without his father's knowledge and drove to Laconia where he picked up Garneau.They were driving to Boston when police tried to pull over the car.

Pitts said he knew he would be going straight to jail so he had no intention of stopping, according to Livingstone's sworn statement. He told the trooper he was tyring to get away by taking Exit 17 but took the exit too fast and crashed.

Pitts never had a license and had only driven a few times in his life, Livingstone wrote.

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