An Oakland County judge has denied an attorney’s motion to quash charges of manslaughter and reckless driving causing death for a teen charged in connection with a hit-and-run crash in Walled Lake that killed a young girl last year.
Judge Victoria Valentine made her ruling Wednesday in the case against Gavin Kassab,19, of Commerce Township, a passenger in a Jeep Gladiator that slammed into several vehicles on March 22, 2023, leading to the death of Piper Carrothers, 13, of Commerce Township. Piper’s younger sister and mother were injured in the crash and hospitalized for some time afterward.
Kassab reportedly ran from the scene along with the West Bloomfield teenager who was allegedly driving the Gladiator without a license.
Along with the manslaughter and reckless driving charges, Kassab is charged with first-degree fleeing and eluding causing death, and two counts of second-degree fleeing and eluding causing death. He’s accused of encouraging the unlicensed, then-15-year-old driver to flee from police who were pursuing the Gladiator moments before the crash.
Kassab’s trial is scheduled to start April 8 with jury selection in Oakland County Circuit Court.
Previously, trial dates for Kassab have been set but subsequently adjourned.
The case against the teen driver is being adjudicated in juvenile court, so the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office isn’t sharing updates on his case and The Oakland Press isn’t identifying him by name. A source close to the case told The Oakland Press that the driver’s trial hasn’t yet been scheduled, but that he was found to be competent for trial based on results of an evaluation at the state’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry. He’s held at Children’s Village, the county’s juvenile facility. He’s charged with manslaughter, reckless driving causing death, first-degree fleeing and eluding causing death, and two counts of second-degree fleeing and eluding — all felonies — as well as leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor.
Kassab has another case being adjudicated in Oakland County Circuit Court, for sex crimes against a 16-year-old girl in West Bloomfield that allegedly happened in July 2022. Kassab faces two counts of aggravated child sexually abusive activity, three counts of aggravated sexually abusive activity – distributing or promoting, and five counts of using computers to commit a crime for allegedly sending harassing messages and links to explicit videos of the teen girl to her and her parents. He’s also accused of livestreaming explicit videos of the victim to his Instagram account.
Trial for those charges is scheduled to start on April 29.
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