Teen indicted as adult for manslaughter

BANGOR – A Glenburn teen was indicted Monday by the Penobscot County grand jury for manslaughter in the death of a Bangor girl 14 months ago.

John Stillings, 17, also was indicted for criminal operating under the influence of intoxicants and failure to remain at the scene of an accident.

The felony charges stem from a Jan. 31, 2004, rollover accident on Route 221 in Glenburn that killed a Bangor girl.

Stillings was on a weekend pass from the Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston at the time of the accident.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday, April 29, in Penobscot County Superior Court.

A District Court judge ruled earlier this year that Stillings should be tried as an adult and the indictment followed.

The youth faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison on the manslaughter charge alone. If he had been convicted of the charges as a juvenile, he could have remained at the youth center in Charleston, where he is committed on other charges, until his 21st birthday.

Jessica Lazore, 16, was ejected from the passenger seat of a Nissan Pathfinder allegedly driven by Stillings. She died at the scene when the vehicle went out of control, struck a telephone pole and rolled over on Route 221. Stillings fled the accident scene on foot but was located nearby.

Stillings, who does not have a driver’s license, was on a weekend pass when the accident occurred at 2:41 a.m. He and passenger Krista Hyson, 16, of Glenburn were not seriously injured. The Pathfinder was registered to Hyson’s parents.

His speed was estimated at 74 mph when the crash occurred, and his blood alcohol level was 1.1 percent 90 minutes after the crash, according to Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Larson, who is prosecuting the case.

The legal limit is 0.08 percent for adults and zero for juveniles.

Larson said Monday that a plea agreement with Stillings is possible and that the case mostly likely would be resolved by the defendant’s 18th birthday on May 31.

Stillings has been committed off and on to the juvenile correctional facility in Charleston since May 2002 for a variety of crimes, including car theft and operating under the influence of intoxicants.