SDSO – NBC 7 San Diego

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A 19-year-old driver will face trial for his alleged role in an accident in February that killed a father and his 14-year-old son as they left baseball practice at Poway High School .

Donald Farmer, 19, will stand trial in cases that include two counts of Gross Vehicular Manslaughter and Driving Under the Influence of Drugs.

Sheriff’s traffic investigators used vehicle data to reconstruct the crash that killed the couple as they were leaving baseball practice at Poway High in February. Investigators said Donald Farmer, 19, was going 90 mph on Espola Rd in the impact. Today, he is being held for trial. #nbc7 pic.twitter.com/X8AXBbKhHN

– Artie Ojeda (@ArtieNBCSD) November 22, 2021

The crash happened Feb. 12 around 7:15 p.m. as Steve Pirolli, 54, and his son Stephen Jr. were exiting the school parking lot. onto northbound Espola Road. Pirolli’s rental car-his normal vehicle is being repaired-was broadside on the passenger side, according to investigators.

Pirolli died in the impact and later her son died at Rady Childrens hospital.

At Farmer’s preliminary hearing Monday, a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department traffic investigator testified that Farmer was driving 90 mph in the 45 mph zone at the time of the impact.

A father and his teenage son were killed in a car crash Friday night at Poway high school. They were leaving baseball practice when the crash happened. NBC 7’s Amber Frias spoke to the family saying the two are inseparable.

The first investigator to arrive at the scene testified that Farmer admitted to drinking drugs on the morning of the accident.

He told me he was smoking a bowl of marijuana at about 10 or 11 oclock in the morning. He also said he took the Xanax pill in the morning, Deputy Ryan Christy said.

Farmer also does not have a drivers license, according to the investigator. A permit was found on his Mercedes in 2005, but to be valid, a 25-year-old licensed driver had to be in the car.

Christy testified that a witness told her she saw Farmer throw things from his trunk into a bush after the fall. Eventually, 10 to 15 E-cigarette vials with THC were found in the area.

The SDSO’s second investigator used information from the event data recorder on Pirolli’s rental car, which recorded approximately five seconds of data before the impact.

Based on data from the rental, the Farmers vehicle was driving 90 mph, the investigator testified.

The investigator also made crash models and replayed Farmer’s vehicle placement at different speeds.

When I plugged it in at 45 miles per hour, at 60 miles per hour, the collision wouldn’t have happened. It will not happen, Deputy Nathaniel Bier said.

About two dozen family and friends of the victim were in court, sometimes sobbing while giving testimony.

The farmer’s mother and father are also in court.

Judge Theodore M. Weathers ordered Farmer, who is free of bond and enrolled in a drug rehab program, to return to court for a trial that will begin March 7.

If convicted on all counts, Farmer faces six to 13 years in prison, according to Deputy District Attorney Laura Evans.

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