Former Penn State football star Julian Fleming has been charged with felony homicide by vehicle in connection with an ATV crash that killed his girlfriend earlier this year.
Fleming, 24, made his first court appearance Wednesday in Bradford County, Pa., to hear the charges against him, local ABC affiliate WNEP reported.
Investigators said Fleming was drunk while driving the ATV on backroads outside Troy, Pa., on May 23, according to NorthCentralPA.com. Police measured his blood-alcohol level at 0.118, above the legal limit of 0.08.
The crash killed Alyssa Boyd, 23, who was Fleming’s girlfriend. The wide receiver was also seriously injured in the wreck, as neither he nor Boyd were wearing helmets, police said.
Fleming was driving the Yamaha four-wheeler when he struck a deer, according to authorities. Cops found deer hair in the wrecked ATV and a dead deer nearby.
“The prosecution here took a tragic and unavoidable accident and turned it into a crime when the facts don’t support that,” Fleming’s attorney, David Bahuriak, told TMZ. “The facts don’t support criminal homicide.”
Fleming faces nine total charges, with the top count of felony homicide by vehicle. That charge carries a maximum of seven years in prison.
In high school, Fleming was one of the best football recruits in the country while starring at Southern Columbia High in Catawissa, Pa. He played four seasons at Ohio State and one season at Penn State, then had a tryout with the Green Bay Packers just a few weeks before the crash.
