Feb 15, 2019 3 min read

The Washington County district attorney’s office is awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine if a man who is charged in connection with one fatality after crashing his car into the Neighbor Health Center on June 6 should be charged with a second count of homicide.

Deputy District Attorney Jason Walsh, chief of litigation, revealed the development Thursday at the formal arraignment of Chad Spence, 44, of Weirton, W.Va., before Washington County Judge Valarie Costanzo.

Spence was charged in November with criminal homicide and homicide by vehicle, both felonies, in connection with the death of Kimberly Dollard, 57, of Amwell Township, who worked at the facility on Leonard Avenue in Washington.

Seriously injured in the crash was David Adams, then 86, of Washington, a patient who was about to leave the Neighbor Health Center when the vehicle broke through a wall.

Walsh said Adams died Jan. 30 at South Hills Rehabilitation Center, where he had been a patient since his hospitalization the day of the wreck.

The judge read a list of a dozen counts of felonies, misdemeanors and summary offenses with which Spence is charged and set a pretrial conference date for early April.

Walsh said after the brief court proceeding that he did not know if he would have more information from the autopsy and pathologist by that time, but if the cause of death “relates back to this incident, we would file another count of homicide.”

Spence chose not to address the court when Costanzo asked him if he had any questions. Representing him are Assistant Public Defenders Adam Yarussi and Katherine Bacher.

Assisting Walsh was Deputy District Attorney Leslie Ridge.

Adams had worked for Hazel Atlas Glass Plant No. 1 and Washington Steel. He was a veteran who enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1947, serving 22 years in various capacities while stationed domestically and abroad, according to his obituary.

June 6 was Dollard’s last day of work before taking vacation and preparing for her son’s wedding in Ohio. The following Monday, the entire family, including the new in-laws, planned to go to Mexico, according to April Thompson, Dollard’s daughter.

At Spence’s preliminary hearing in December, the city police detective who filed charges said Spence couldn’t explain what happened.

Investigators said Spence drove his Jeep Liberty down Sharp Avenue in Washington fast enough for it to become airborne before it sailed through a wall of Washington Health System Neighbor Health Center and into an area where patients are registered about 12:30 p.m.

Then and there, Dollard was pronounced dead. Adams was injured and flown to UPMC-Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh.

Spence allegedly told the detective he’d been in town for an appointment at a Suboxone clinic on Locust Street a block away.

Spence that day was taken to Washington Hospital, where he was released after a few hours.

He is being held in the Washington County jail without bond.