Falmouth woman pleads guilty in Maine crash that killed four people

Former Maine Maritime Academy student Noelle Tavares reached a plea agreement Friday over her involvement in a 2022 crash that killed four of her fellow students. The Boston Globe reported.

Court documents showed Tavares, of Falmouth, faced 13 charges in connection with the incident in Hancock Superior Court. Prosecutors accused her of giving her keys to driver Joshua Goncalves-Radding before the accident in Castine and buying alcohol with a fake ID, making her an accomplice in the accident.

Terms of the Objection Agreement

As part of the agreement, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of obtaining alcohol for a minor resulting in death globe reported. In return, the public prosecutor granted her a two-year extension of her prison sentence. Other charges were dropped in the agreement, and Tavares is not allowed to consume alcohol during the two-year period, it said globe.

If she complies with the terms of the deferred sentence, the offense will be reduced to a misdemeanor. She must also pay a $500 fine and donate $1,000 to the advocacy group Students Against Destructive Decisions globe reported.

However, if she violates the agreement, she will be convicted of a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both, according to the court globe.

Tavares' legal representation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hancock County District Attorney Robert Granger said globe that members of the victim's family had asked for leniency for Tavares and that his office found that outcome “reasonable and fair.”

“This resolution also provides Ms. Tavares the opportunity to succeed in life and avoid a felony conviction,” Granger told the newspaper globe. “As a condition of the deferred disposition, Ms. Tavares must also speak to the next two incoming Maine Maritime freshman classes about the dangers of poor decisions involving alcohol from a personal perspective.”

Prosecutors have concluded that Tavares was to blame for the accident that killed four people

Tavares was a passenger when fellow student Goncalves-Radding was driving between 106 and 111 miles per hour and crashed around 2 a.m., the indictment says. Goncalves-Radding was driving seven students home from a bar when he lost control and crashed into a tree, prosecutors said globe.

Court documents show Goncalves-Radding is serving a three-year prison sentence for his role in the crash.

According to the documents, Massachusetts residents Luke Rockwell Simpson, 22, of Rockport, and Riley Ignacio-Cameron, 20, of Aquinnah, died in the crash, along with Maine residents Brian Kenealy, 20, of York, and Chase Fossett, 21, of Gardiner.

“We will mourn these young men in their memory,” Jerry Paul, former president of the Maine Maritime Academy, said during a vigil for the students. “We will never forget her or this moment in the history of the Maine Maritime Academy. They were lost far too soon and before the end of their watch.”

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Eva Levin is a general assignment co-op at Boston.com. She covers breaking and local news in Boston and beyond.

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