'He needs to feel remorse.' Driver again denied bail in fatal crash that killed Serra Catholic student

Nenita Kalkbrenner sat in a Pittsburgh courtroom Thursday as the man charged with crashing into a school van and killing her 15-year-old daughter, Samantha, while drag-racing at speeds up to 107 mph, asked to be released from jail.

William Soliday II has been held behind bars without bail since his arrest in December.

As a judge prepared to read his decision on whether to grant bail, Kalkbrenner sat near the edge of her wooden seat, tears welling in her eyes as she tightly clutched her husband Carl’s hand.

“The motion to modify bail is denied,” Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce R. Beemer declared.

Kalkbrenner and nearly a dozen supporters released an audible gasp.

The judge’s words brought Kalkbrenner back to Sept. 20, the day Samantha, a Serra Catholic High School sophomore, died when Soliday’s Volkswagen Jetta collided with her school van on a residential Dravosburg road.

“It’s been six months, but the feelings are the same,” said Kalkbrenner, 44, of Dravosburg, fighting back tears after she left the fifth-floor courtroom in the Allegheny County Courthouse. “He’s asking for his freedom. But nobody can tell me who can bring my daughter back.”

Beemer rejected a bond request by Soliday, 43, of North Huntingdon, echoing a previous denial by a different judge.

Soliday was commuting to work that September morning when he started racing a co-worker from Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Andrew Voigt, police said.

Witnesses said the two men were roaring across the Mansfield Bridge in a 40-mph zone.

At 7:20 a.m., Soliday crashed into the van, which was carrying several students. Three of them, including Samantha, were ejected. Samantha died at the scene.

Soliday was charged with criminal homicide, homicide by vehicle and related charges.

His lawyer, Casey White, previously argued Soliday, who was severely injured in the crash, wasn’t getting adequate medical care at the Allegheny County Jail.

Judge Edward J. Borkowski didn’t agree. He said Soliday poses a risk to the community based on the charges against him and his driving history.

Prosecutor Brian Catanzarite returned to that driving history Thursday, slowly reading the citations against Soliday for speeding and careless driving that dated to 1997.

Catanzarite, a deputy district attorney, used Soliday’s words to illustrate why prosecutors — and, he said, the Kalkbrenner family — objected to granting bail.

Soliday has made it clear that, if released, he would not return to prison, Catanzarite said.

In court, the prosecutor played parts from at least five phone calls Soliday made from jail to his wife, Flanna.

“Hopefully, we can get you a bail hearing,” Soliday’s wife said Dec. 16, three days after his arrest.

“I don’t know if I can come out and go back in,” he responded.

In the same call, Soliday asked his wife to consider using their home as collateral to pay bail. He then asked if the house would be repossessed if he had “an accident” or committed suicide.

“I can’t leave you with nothing,” Soliday told his wife.

“You know I love you,” she responded. “Everybody in the family loves you.”

In one phone call, Soliday criticized police.

“Who has me in prison?” he asked Feb. 15. “It’s a bunch of cops who want me in prison over nothing … they’re all dirty and they’re all scum.”

In another call, his wife read the letter firing him, effective March 11, from his longtime job at the Bettis facility in West Mifflin.

The letter’s unnamed author ended Soliday’s “at-will employment” due to “ off-duty conduct,” his wife said over the phone. The alleged triple-digit speed that preceded the September crash, the author said, was “irreconcilable with our core values.”

“Nothing has changed since Judge Borkowski’s ruling except we have a window into the rage and arrogance that caused” Soliday to race that morning, Catanzarite said.

Soliday’s co-worker, Voigt, 37, of Penn Hills “drag-raced” Soliday in a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk that was not involved in the crash, authorities said. Police said Voigt fled.

Voigt has been charged with accidents involving death, five counts of reckless endangerment and traffic offenses.

Flanna Soliday told the court Thursday her husband suffered a vertebral fracture in the crash. He also has a colostomy bag after having part of his colon removed.

He’s missed several doctor’s appointments, and she said his neurological symptoms are worsening.

White, Soliday’s attorney, argued prosecutors intended to try his client with third-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter charges.

“Therefore, he is entitled to bail,” White said. “It is the commonwealth’s burden to prove the accused … will harm someone if he is released.”

Beemer wasn’t swayed. He said he agreed with Borkowski’s rationale at the earlier hearing for denying bail.

“Listening to everything in there, it sounded like this guy wanted to take the easy way out and not face justice,” Carl Kalkbrenner, 58, of Dravosburg, Samantha’s father and a retired 26-year Marine Corps veteran, said from the steps outside the courthouse.

“He needs to be accountable,” he said. “He needs to feel remorse.”