Moms of teens killed in McCandless crash win court battle against bail for jailed driver

Heather McCandless began to sob in front of a judge as she described how her husband ends each day by saying “good night” to the urn holding their late daughter’s ashes.

Taylor Orlowski, 18, was killed Dec. 23 after a speeding car in which she was riding with four other passengers crashed on a North Hills road.

Fellow passenger Jonathan Tourney, 14, of Richland, also died, and two others were injured.

On Thursday, the late teens’ mothers appeared in court to fight back against the accused driver’s effort to be released from jail while awaiting trial.

McCandless turned to Aiden Saber, the Richland teenager charged with gunning the engine of his mother’s SUV and hurtling down a quiet McCandless road at more than 70 mph.

Police said Saber, 18, failed to handle a bend and wrecked into an oak tree so hard it nearly cleaved the vehicle in half.

“Every day I wish I could see my little girl,” said McCandless, 46, of Baden, Beaver County, crying as she read her husband’s testimony into the court record. “You stole my soul that night … and I pray that you spend an extremely long time in jail.”

After hearing the testimony, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelley E. Bigley denied Saber’s request for bail, leaving him in the Allegheny County Jail, where he’s been for the last seven weeks.

She noted that one of her colleagues, Judge Edward J. Borkowski, had already done the same at least three other times this year.

Borkowski had cited several factors in his bail denials, Bigley said — the late-night timing of the accident, the fact that underage drinking was involved, Saber’s speeding and his decision to disregard a passenger’s plea to slow down. Borkowski suggested Saber had bad judgment and poor impulse control, according to Bigley’s reading of his orders.

Attorney Casey White, who represents Saber, told Bigley that Assistant District Attorney Katie Simmers hadn’t proved that Saber is a danger to the community or a flight risk.

“He’s not facing a life sentence,” White said. “I think he’s entitled to a bail amount.”

Saber’s mother, Karen, also testified on behalf of her son, saying she would stay home “24/7” to monitor him and not allow Saber to drive should the judge grant bail.

Bigley wasn’t moved.

“If I consider the findings Judge Borkowski made, nothing significant has changed — even for me,” Bigley said.

While Ellie Tourney’s son, Jonathan, died in the crash, her older son, Jeffrey, was a passenger and survived. Today, she said, Jeffrey is in therapy and continues to get flashbacks to the night of the crash.

“Our lives have been unbearable since Dec. 23, 2023,” Tourney testified. “It’s essential [Saber] is held accountable — we are a family torn apart.”

David Tourney, Ellie’s husband and the two boys’ father, died in June, months before the fatal crash, from a brain tumor. He was 62.

As McCandless spoke, a family member leaned between rows in the courtroom gallery, putting her hands on the shoulders of two men, at least one of whom was fighting back tears.

McCandless told Bigley she gets to speak to Taylor now only through a journal she’s kept since her daughter’s death.

“I don’t feel he should be at home with his family [when] my daughter does not have that same opportunity,” McCandless said. “It is not fair what he has done to my family.”

Police said at Saber’s March 22 preliminary hearing that skid marks showed he was driving nearly three times the speed limit — at least 72 mph in a 25-mph zone.

He also had alcohol in his system, police said. Lab tests showed Saber had a blood-alcohol level of .047% that night, according to authorities.

Police charged Saber on March 11 with 15 criminal counts, including homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle and DUI.

Prosecutors withdrew one aggravated assault by vehicle charge during the March hearing.