Charges upgraded in double fatality

The state has added two counts of second-degree manslaughter to the charges against Joseph Donohue, a 27-year-old New London man accused of causing the Memorial Day weekend crash that killed two young people on Route 32 in Waterford.

The new charges were lodged Tuesday when Donohue, who has been held on a $500,000 bond since he was arrested May 24 at the scene of the crash, appeared Tuesday in New London Superior Court. His attorney, Ronald F. Stevens, said he had received new police reports in the incident and was reviewing them. Donohue is scheduled to appear in court again on Dec. 15.

According to earlier reports, Donohue was driving a Dodge pickup truck that broadsided a Scion driven by Joshua Lecce, 23, of Salem on Route 32 in Waterford. Lecce and Danielle M. Nicholson, 21, suffered fatal injuries. Donohue failed a series of field sobriety tests, and police charged him with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. His blood alcohol level less than an hour after the crash was 0.237. When it was taken a half hour later, it had risen to 0.252, more than three times the legal limit.

Donohue threatened suicide after the crash and has been housed at the Garner Correctional Institution, where the Department of Correction provides treatment to inmates with mental illnesses.