Thursday, 4:30 PM
Mom holds driver -- and police -- responsible for fatal crash
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff
Carolyn Hoyt has a wish for Javier Morales, who authorities say evaded State Police last month and slammed into a parked taxi in Somerville, leaving Hoyt's daughter brain-damaged. The crash killed her daughter’s boyfriend and the taxi driver.
"My wish for him is that he starts taking his life seriously," Carolyn Hoyt said Thursday in an interview at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she has been watching over her 21-year-old daughter, Katelyn, since the May 27 crash. "The best thing he could do is to become a man of integrity and character."
Authorities say Morales was driving a sport utility vehicle about 1:30 a.m. in Everett when he made an illegal left turn in front of Trooper Joseph Kalil and then raced into Somerville. Four minutes later, with Kalil trailing two to three blocks behind, Morales smashed into the taxi on Highland Road, court records show.
Katelyn Hoyt’s boyfriend, Paul V. Farris, 23, was killed instantly. The taxi driver, Walid Chahine, 45, of Methuen, died June 3 at MGH.
Morales, who was also injured, is being held on $100,000 cash bail and has pleaded not guilty to motor vehicle homicide. He will face more charges for Chahine’s death, said a spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone, Jr.
While saying Morales is ultimately responsible for the crash, Mayor Joseph Curtatone of Somerville and residents have criticized State Police for pursuing Morales into the city’s congested streets.
Thursday, Hoyt said the trooper must now be burdened with the knowledge that lives were lost in the crash. She said she wants to know whether Kalil complied with department’s pursuit policy, which is the subject of an internal State Police investigation.
She also said that while Morales was the primary cause of the crash, she is not sure he should be imprisoned. She pointed out that he was driving with his pregnant girlfriend at the time, and as a Christian she wonders whether the crash was a signal to Morales that he must change his life.
