The charges facing a Howard man accused of killing a woman and her unborn child may be dismissed today, depending on the court's interpretation of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling.
Alfred Cantolina, 21, faces charges that include two counts of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence, four counts of aggravated assault by motor vehicle while driving under the influence and other related charges. Cantolina is charged with killing 29-year-old Britt Barndt and her unborn child Nov. 18. Police said Cantolina's pickup turned left into Barndt's oncoming car, also injuring husband Gene Barndt, the couple's six-year-old daughter and a family friend.
Barndt was eight months pregnant with a son she and her husband had already named Samuel.
A preliminary hearing for the case was heard Dec. 6 and Cantolina was bound over on all charges except for two counts of aggravated assault.
However, the results of the hearing and the charges that Cantolina faces are now in question, mainly because of a February court decision that dismissed the same charge in a similar accident involving the death of a woman's unborn baby.
In 1997, a Westmoreland County man was accused of driving drunk and hitting a woman in the county who was 8 months pregnant.
At the time, the Superior Court ruled the unborn child was technically "alive" and that under the state crimes code, a charge could be filed. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, however reversed the decision in February, dismissing the vehicular homicide while DUI charge and making the only charge Booth faced a DUI.
Cantolina's attorney, Brian Manchester, filed two motions that questioned the sufficiency of evidence presented at the preliminary hearing and questioned the charges involving the homicide by motor vehicle while DUI and the two counts left on aggravated assault by motor vehicle while DUI.
Manchester said because of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Booth case, he expects the homicide charge to be dismissed despite the term of Barndt's pregnancy.
"According to the result of the Booth case, this charge must be thrown out," Manchester said.
Deputy Attorney Janice Martino-Gottshall, who is prosecuting the case, said she will try to prove that the baby was alive when it was born, even if it was only for a few seconds.
Martino-Gottshall said, however, the child must be out of the mother's womb and detached from the umbilical cord, something she must find evidence to prove.
"If that child did indeed live and the child was a person for a second or two, then the charge is viable," Martino-Gottshall said.
Aside from the vehicular homicide, Manchester is trying to get the aggravated assault by motor vehicle while DUI dismissed as well.
Manchester said because Cantolina's BAC was .024 and because the accident was six months before his 21st birthday, he was charged with a DUI under the minors law. The legal BAC for people over the age of 21 is .10.
Manchester said the Pennsylvania law is faulty because it is based on the physiological difference, one that is minimal in this case.
"Alcohol is not related . . . he's negligent, not criminally liable, and it should be a civil case," Manchester said. "If he's convicted on a DUI, then we will take this up constitutionally."
Martino-Gottshall said Pennsylvania has a zero tolerance law concerning driving under the influence that includes a mandatory sentence of three years in jail if convicted.
