Driver charged with striking UConn student
Parents alleged to have told others not to speak about deadly incident
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

Carlee Wines

The mother of the teenage driver who is alleged to have struck Carlee Wines, 19, of Manalapan, on the University of Connecticut campus last month planned to have a "mechanic friend" repair the vehicle so that "no one would be able to tell it was involved in the incident," according to a police affidavit.

The affidavit, released by UConn police, details the investigation that led to the arrest last week of two Long Island, N.Y., residents in connection with the incident.

Wines, who was a freshman at UConn, died of her injuries on Jan. 22 in a Hart-ford, Conn., hospital.

The vehicle police believe was the one that struck Wines in the early morning hours of Jan. 20 was recovered in the Long Island, N.Y., driveway of a person identified as a relative of one of the two people charged in the crime so far.

Anthony P. Alvino, 18, of Lindenhurst, N.Y., and Michele Hall, 18, of Wantagh, N.Y., were arrested and charged in connection with the hit-and-run incident that happened at about 2 a.m. Jan. 20 when Wines stepped into a crosswalk on the UConn campus in Storrs, Conn.

The arrests of Alvino and Hall were made at UConn police headquarters after both young adults surrendered just before noon on Feb. 15 - 26 days after the incident, which has received significant media coverage.

When the hit-and-run occurred on Jan. 20, Alvino was a student at St. Bonaventure University, Olean, N.Y., and Hall was a UConn student residing in Wade House, a dormitory on the UConn campus. Alvino and Hall were dating at the time.

Wines was struck as she was walking back to her campus dormitory and Alvino and his friends were on their way to Hall's dormitory.

According to the police affidavit, Hall left UConn on Jan. 21, "because she was feeling so guilty" and never returned to the university. She enrolled in a Long Island community

lege. Hall was not interviewed by police until Feb. 3 when she went to the UConn police station accompanied by an attorney.

UConn police spokesman Maj. Ronald Blicher said police expect more arrests to be made in the case. He declined to elaborate on that statement.

The 2004 Nissan Armada that police say Alvino was driving when he struck Wines was eventually recovered by police at a home in Levittown, N.Y., that is owned by a Robert G. Alvino. Two other individuals were in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Anthony Alvino's mother, Donna Alvino, is the registered owner of the 2004 Nissan Armada police allege her son was driving when he hit Wines and drove away from the scene.

The police affidavit identifies the other two passengers as Anthony Muccioli and Jordan Donahue, both of whom are students at St. Bonaventure.

According to a press release issued by UConn Police Chief Robert S. Hudd, in addition to a dogged police investigation into the incident, police also credit daily media coverage as being instrumental in helping law enforcement agencies solve the case.

There is much information in the 20-page affidavit which details the hours leading up to the hit-and-run incident as well as the alleged actions of those involved. Most notably, the affidavit deals with Alvino's parents, who allegedly undertook a cover-up in the days immediately following the hit-and-run.

At one point, according to the affidavit, Donna Alvino instructed Muccioli and Donahue to tell no one of the incident and to look upon it as a "life lesson that they now had to live with." According to the affidavit, she said they should not talk about it with anyone except for their parents if they had to.

According to the police affidavit, Hall was a front seat passenger at the time the vehicle struck Wines, and Donahue and Muccioli were in the back seat.

Both Muccioli and Donahue were said to be intoxicated and vomiting, and not fully aware of the immediate details of the actual collision. The affidavit states that both recall they could tell the vehicle had struck something, and that Alvino was aware of that fact and that Hall was screaming at Alvino to keep driving after the vehicle had struck Wines.

The affidavit discloses that all four occupants of the Nissan Armada had consumed alcohol that evening.

According to the police affidavit, in the hours following the incident, the vehicle was driven to a Long Island home where it remained until UConn police came for it on Jan. 27. The 2004 Nissan Armada was brought back to Storrs and remains impounded.

Alvino was released on $250,000 bail after being charged with felonies that include misconduct with a motor vehicle (resulting in death), evading responsibility and tampering with physical evidence, along with misdemeanor charges that include possession of alcohol by a minor, traveling unreasonably fast, failure to grant right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and failure to drive in the proper lane.

Hall was released on $100,000 bail after being charged with aiding and abetting, evading responsibility, an unclassified felony, conspiracy to commit evading responsibility, an unclassified felony, hindering prosecution, a third-degree class D felony, aiding and abetting identity theft, a third-degree class D felony, conspiracy to commit identity theft, a third-degree class D felony, and misdemeanor charges that include inducing minors to procure liquor, aiding and abetting misrepresentation of age to procure liquor and conspiracy to commit misrepresentation of age to procure liquor.

Alvino and Hall are expected to be arraigned on Feb. 27.

The police affidavit states that pieces of plastic were recovered at the scene that were later determined to be plastic headlight housing that included a parts number that led police to a manufacturing plant in Mexico, where it was confirmed the part could only have come from a 2004, 2005 or 2006 Nissan Armada or Nissan Titan Pickup.

Based on that information, notices were sent on Jan. 22 to dealerships and repair shops within a 50-mile radius of the UConn campus, letting it be known police wanted to be notified if parts for any of these model vehicles were ordered. Police also instructed New England auto glass suppliers to notify authorities about any windshields being ordered for the same year models.

On Jan. 26, after police had already followed up leads that took them on a firsthand inspection of 100 Nissan Armadas in towns throughout New England, UConn police were contacted by a New York attorney who told them he was representing the Alvino family. The attorney told police where to find the 2004 Nissan Armada that is registered to Donna Alvino.

According to the sworn affidavit that details statements made to police in the course of the investigation: after Alvino told his parents he was driving the vehicle that struck Carlee Wines, his parents set up a meeting in a motel room with Donahue and Muccioli, at which time they attempted to involve the two students in a cover-up of the incident. The motel meeting took place on Jan. 23.

According to the affidavit, the Alvinos paid cash for the motel room, but used a credit card to take the group out for a meal where "the talk turned to baseball."

According to the affidavit, Alvino's father, Anthony C., told Donahue and Muccioli they would have to be "strong to get through this" and Donna Alvino told them "not to worry about the incident because things happen like that all the time on a big campus like UConn," and that "the university wouldn't look into it because they didn't want the bad publicity."

She allegedly also told them that "money was no object," that she was willing to pay for counseling for the two young men, and that she had someone who was going to fix the vehicle so well that no one would ever be able to tell it had been involved in an accident.

The affidavit states that on Jan. 27, after Alvino had left St. Bonaventure as a student, Donna Alvino called Donahue and Muccioli to tell them that Alvino had turned himself in to police and that they, too, should hire attorneys. In fact, Alvino had not yet turned himself in to police.

Muccioli was visited later that day by police in his St. Bonaventure dormitory.

On Jan. 31, Muccioli and Donahue, accompanied by attorneys, met with police to give statements.

According to Muccioli and Donahue, Donahue had driven Alvino's Nissan Armada from St. Bonaventure to Hall's dorm at UConn because Alvino had previously received several speeding tickets and because he had "a history of driving fast."

Both young men blamed intimidation from Donna Alvino as the reason they waited to go to police with their statements about what happened the night Alvino's vehicle struck Wines and fled the scene.

According to the affidavit, on the day after the incident, Alvino told Donahue and Muccioli that he had not stopped at the scene because he had been drinking alcohol and Hall told everyone no one should say anything about the accident to anyone.

Police were able to determine that Alvino's vehicle had crossed the center line of the road by at least 17 inches and his speed was given at between 35 and 50 mph by people who had been accompanying Wines. Hall told police she believed the speed of the vehicle at the time of impact to have been around 40 mph, while Muccioli estimated the vehicle's speed to have been about 30 mph.

In summing up, the affidavit states that even though Alvino was aware he had struck someone, he did not attempt to stop to render assistance to Wines.