Clinton Man Pleads Guilty In Fatal Crash

By ALAINE GRIFFIN

Hartford Courant

June 12, 2008

Minutes after his speeding vehicle slammed into a utility pole and rolled several times, witnesses could hear Dennis Knapp screaming.

'I killed her! I killed her!' Knapp yelled about one of the passengers, Kirsten Meyer, 19, of Madison, who was trapped inside the vehicle and unresponsive.

Prosecutor Barbara Hoffman recounted the moments following the Aug. 4, 2007, crash in Clinton during a hearing Wednesday in Superior Court in which Knapp pleaded guilty to killing Meyer in the wreck.

Three other men were in Knapp's vehicle when it swerved out of control around a curve on Nod Road shortly before 2:50 a.m. and rolled. Meyer was a 2007 graduate of Daniel Hand High School.

Hoffman said Knapp was 'thrashing violently on the ground' and screaming 'I'm going back to jail' and that 'he just wanted to get out of there.' At the time of the crash, Knapp was on probation for a charge of risk of injury to a minor. He had just been released from prison after a nine-month sentence for third-degree assault.

Hoffman said Knapp's blood-alcohol content was 0.123 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Knapp later told the passengers not to talk to police. 'Don't say anything and we'll be all set,' Hoffman said Knapp told the passengers.

On Wednesday, Knapp, 20, of North High Street, Clinton, took a plea deal of 10 years, suspended after five years in prison, in exchange for pleas to charges of second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle and violation of probation.

If convicted at trial, Knapp could have faced a maximum of 12 years in prison, according to state statutes. Knapp will be sentenced Aug. 14.

Knapp's attorney, Michael Hillis, said Knapp decided on his own to plead guilty.

'He has such remorse for what happened,' Hillis said. 'The nightmare for him is not jail. The nightmare is living every day with her death.'

The three other passengers in Knapp's vehicle were treated at area hospitals and later released.

Police said they found a large bottle of brandy in the vehicle. The group had been at a party prior to the crash.

The host of the party, Neal Gobrogge, 23, of Madison, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment in Superior Court in New Haven earlier this year.

Gobrogge faced more serious charges and possible prison time, but the prosecutor handling the case said a successful trial was unlikely since one of the police officers who investigated the case, Matthew Sterling, was fired in January for conduct unbecoming a police officer.

An Associated Press report is included.

Contact Alaine Griffin at agriffin@courant.com .

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