Wendell Teen Pleads Guilty In Fatal Crash

A teenager from Wendell agreed on the morning of July 12 to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter in connection to an automobile accident in December in which his classmate and friend suffered fatal personal injuries.

Austin Wade Marx was charged with involuntary manslaughter after a December 7 crash in which 16-year-old Gavin Boyd Westover was killed.

At the time of the accident, Marx and Westover, both of whom were students at East Wake High School in Wendell, were on their lunch break, off campus.

According to North Carolina state troopers, Max was well in excess of the speed limit at the time of the accident. They say he was driving as fast as 85 to 90 mph in a 1996 Chevrolet Camaro on Puryear Road near the intersection with Marks Creek. The vehicle ran off the road and overturned.

Witnesses said they saw the Camaro racing with a blue Ford Mustang prior to the accident.

Judge Ronald Stephens said that there would be short- and long-term consequences to Marx’s actions. The short-term was that his minimum 16-month prison sentence would be suspended and he would be placed on intensive supervised probation.

However, on Christmas Eve this year, when the Westovers will likely be having a difficult holiday, Marx is to report to Wake County Jail.

Stephens also ordered Marx to pay court costs, surrender his driver’s license for three years, and speak to high school groups about the consequences of his poor judgment.