He stood hunched over, head hung low, as a judge in Norwich arraigned Daniel Musser, 24, on manslaughter and D.U.I. charges.
The navy man is accused of a drunk driving crash in Montville that killed a Connecticut College junior over the weekend. He told police that he had "four or five drinks over the course of the evening" at the Mohegan Sun Casino, reports the Courant.
Elizabeth Durante, a budding humanitarian, was on her way to begin a humanitarian mission in Uganda. She was in a Connecticut College van that was struck when Musser drove the wrong direction on the highway, said police.
(Read more on the crash. And read more on the incident leading Governor Rell to reconsider a recent plan to allow casinos to serve alcohol 24 hours a day.)
In court we learned the 24-year-old has no prior arrests, is originally from Mississippi, and has been in the U.S. Navy for shy of five years.
The judge placed him on a suicide watch and tripled his bond to $300,000.
Police said Musser failed a road sobriety test and two breathalyzer tests.
His family and friends left the courthouse quickly, with nothing to say about the man who could face 19 years in prison if convicted.
