ROGERS COUNTY — One woman is dead, and another is in the hospital after a teen driving a stolen car hit them, according to the Rogers County Sheriff's Office.
The wreck happened on Hwy 66 near 410 Road on Oct. 20 around 11 a.m. Sheriff Scott Walton said it started with a pursuit of a stolen car in Vinita. Deputies terminated the pursuit for safety and then found the car wrecked.
They said someone stole a pickup truck near where the first one was wrecked. On Oct. 21, Sheriff Walton clarified that the truck was actually the third vehicle he had stolen since Saturday.
Walton said deputies located the car and, at one point, caught the driver on radar going around 100 mph.
Deputies attempted to throw out stop sticks to stop the driver, but Walton said the driver veered and almost hit one of the deputies.
The driver, later identified as Anthony Giancola, 17, from the Springfield, Missouri area, eventually pulled out onto Hwy 66 while speeding and hit a mother and daughter driving down the highway.
The daughter, 23-year-old Logan Harrel, passed away from her injuries. She was a cheerleader at Roger State University. Her mother was taken by helicopter to the hospital.
On Oct. 21, RCSO released more information about the suspect.
They said during a less-than-24-hour period, the teen stole at least three cars — two in Missouri and one in Oklahoma. He was also involved in three separate pursuits with law enforcement.
The teen also broke into a home in Republic, Mo., to steal another car and planned to murder the homeowner in his sleep.
The suspect told investigators that he "chose the lesser of two evils" and did not go through with the murder.
"His intentions were to kill the homeowner and steal a vehicle," Sheriff Walton said. "He got a key fob that didn't match up to any vehicles there, and since the man didn't wake up, he decided not to kill him and went on to get another vehicle."
He allegedly planned to travel from Missouri to Texas to California, "indicating that a prolonged and potentially violent spree was going to occur if he had not been stopped."
"We knew without a doubt that, I mean, there wasn't gonna be a happy ending to this," Walton said. "And the likelihood of somebody getting hurt as he went down the road was still great."
RCSO believes there to be a mental health aspect to the case. However, investigators are confident the suspect committed these actions willfully and with full knowledge of right and wrong.
The sheriff clarified he doesn't think deputies made any errors in closely pursuing the teen despite the high-speed chase ending with an innocent person killed.
"I'm not second-guessing the decisions that we made as individuals or individuals as part of this agency at all," Sheriff Walton said.
"It's like when we use force of any kind. You don't have time to sit down at the table and discuss with a panel of experts what we're gonna do today. They made a decision. They pursued this individual. It probably wasn't going to come to a happy ending anyway. And again, it came to tragic ending - but by his poor decisions, not ours."
Giancola is being held in the Craig County Juvenile Detention Center for logistical reasons.
On Oct. 25, Giancola is facing seven charges:
- Felony first-degree murder
- Two counts of endangering others while eluding
- Causing great bodily injury while eluding
- Larceny of an automobile,
- Possession of a stolen vehicle
- Pattern of criminal offenses
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