The lone survivor in a fiery crash in Bethlehem Township that killed three others in the car has balked at a plea agreement calling for him to serve 15 to 30 years in state prison.
Friday marked the deadline for Terrell Barclay to accept a plea bargain to vehicular homicide charges, but his public defender, Timothy Prendergast, said his client opted against it.
Barclay — whose face, arms and the rest of his body were badly burned in the wreck last year — has claimed in court that he has no memory of it. The 28-year-old Orange, N.J., man is scheduled to go to trial in May.
Police said Barclay had a blood-alcohol content of more than twice the legal limit to drive when he slammed into several parked cars on Willow Park Road, causing a fireball that left him ablaze.
Before the early May 6 crash, Barclay was driving at least 80 mph when he sped past a Freemansburg police officer near the town line, police said. Though the officer started to follow Barclay's car, he arrived seconds after the wreck, which caught several vehicles on fire, police said.
Three people are dead and a fourth is severely burned after a car speeding along a Bethlehem Township roadway crashed and burst into flames early Friday morning, May 6, 2016.
The others in the car — Joshua Edwards, 28, of Easton; Amanda Martin, 26, of Schuylkill County; and Ashlee Mosher, 29, of Phillipsburg, N.J. — died at the scene.
Barclay spent two months in a medically induced coma at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest before he was transferred to an Easton rehabilitation center, police said. He left the center before police filed charges, but later surrendered to authorities. He is being held in Northampton County Prison.
Three people are dead and a fourth is severely burned after a car speeding along a Bethlehem Township roadway crashed and burst into flames early Friday morning.