Teen driver to face trial in fatal McCandless crash after best friend testifies against him

Aiden Saber stood in a red jail jumpsuit Friday, silently listening to his best friend testify against him.

Jeffrey Tourney described how Saber triggered the horrific crash in December that killed a young woman — and Tourney’s little brother.

Police said Saber, 18, of Richland was speeding in his mother’s SUV down North Park’s Irwin Road, near Babcock Boulevard, when he failed to handle a bend and wrecked into an oak tree so hard it nearly cleaved the vehicle in half.

“He said he was in full control, he said, ‘I got it,’” Tourney, the front-seat passenger, testified during a preliminary hearing for Saber. “I felt like I was in danger.”

Two other passengers — Tourney’s 14-year-old brother, Jonathan, and Taylor Orlowski, 18, of Baden, Beaver County — were killed.

Tourney, 18, of Richland, who suffered minor injuries in the Dec. 23 crash, recalled seeing his brother in the accident’s aftermath.

Jonathan had been thrown from the vehicle onto a nearby hillside.

He was unconscious but looked like he was breathing, Tourney said.

“So, I sat him on my lap,” Tourney said. “And I told him he was gonna be OK.”

First responders flew Jonathan by helicopter to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, but he died on the way.

Tourney, who’s been close with Saber for three of four years, joined several Allegheny County Police officers who testified for the prosecution Friday during the nearly 90-minute hearing in Downtown Pittsburgh.

District Judge Lisa V. Caulfield held Saber for trial in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on charges of homicide by vehicle, DUI and other offenses.

Prosecutors withdrew one aggravated assault by vehicle charge.

Tourney’s testimony expanded on information previously released in court records about the moments surrounding the Dec. 23 crash.

That night, Saber, the Tourneys and another set of brothers from the North Hills, Matthew and Zachary Nicely, drove to a Sheetz convenience store parking lot in Wexford around 10:30 p.m., Tourney said.

There, they encountered Orlowski, a pint-sized horse-riding champion. They had never seen her before, Tourney said.

After hanging out for about two hours, the boys headed back to Tourney’s house. Orlowski came separately, arriving about 30 minutes later.

There, in the house’s attached garage, Tourney said that he, Saber and Matthew Nicely drank beer that Nicely had brought earlier that night to the Tourney home.

Tourney testified that Saber had two Busch Light Peach beers.

Orlowski did not drink, and neither did Jonathan or Zachary, a juvenile, according to Tourney.

After an hour or two, the teens headed to North Park in a Land Rover owned by Saber’s mother. Tourney said the group walked on a trail rumored to be haunted.

When the group was done hiking, all six got into the Land Rover, Zachary and Jonathan in the rear cargo compartment.

Saber drove down Irwin Road, a windy, asphalt-paved back road whose roughly half-mile stretch has no streetlights or warning signs about bends, according to police.

Tourney recalled the moments before the crash.

As Saber drove, Tourney sat next to him, Matthew Nicely behind, and Orlowski next to Nicely.

Saber sped up, Tourney said. He testified that it felt like “60 or 70 mph.”

“Slow down! Slow down!” Tourney said he told Saber.

About 30 seconds later, police said, Saber skidded as he hit a bend in the road and crashed the SUV’s passenger side into an oak tree.

Orlowski, Zachary Nicely and Jonathan Tourney were all thrown from the vehicle.

Tourney said the SUV slid “maybe 60 yards” down the roadway before coming to a stop.

Police said skid marks show that Saber 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.

The damage to the Land Rover was massive.

“It was hard to determine if it was one vehicle or vehicles,” testified Allegheny County Police Officer Dave Hyland, who responded to the SUV’s distress signal to 911. “It was pretty much split in half.”

Tourney, who suffered “cuts and bruises,” testified that he quickly tried to account for everybody. Orlowski, he said, was lying on the road, motionless.

She didn’t seem to be breathing, Tourney said. So, he checked her pulse.

Nothing.

He said that he went to Zachary Nicely, who was on the grass at the side of the road. The teen was in pain — he had injured his leg — but was conscious.

Then Tourney started searching for his brother.

“I found him! I found him,” Saber soon yelled from a nearby hillside, Tourney testified.

Tourney had scant moments with his brother before the helicopter landed and whisked Jonathan away.

Courtroom observers wept during Tourney’s testimony.

One woman wore a shamrock-green ribbon bearing the words “Forever Young” on the lapel of her black blouse.

Saber now faces trial in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on charges of homicide by vehicle, DUI and other offenses.

Prosecutors withdrew one aggravated assault by vehicle charge. Saber’s attorney, Casey White, unsuccessfully tried to get a DUI charge withdrawn on a technicality.

Saber has been held in the Allegheny County Jail without bail since his March 11 arrest.

Friends and relatives of Saber and the victims bustled out of the courtroom after the hearing, declining comment.

After Saber’s family retreated to privacy on the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts Building’s upper floors, White addressed reporters.

“He just seems like a lost soul,” White said of his client. “To say he’s depressed isn’t doing it justice.”

White said that “there’s no victories” in a case like this.

“This is another sad chapter in a sad, tragic story.”