Jury selection upcoming in deadly Penns Valley crash that happened nearly two years ago
Centre County prosecutors and a lawyer for the driver charged in a deadly Penns Valley crash nearly two years ago are scheduled to pick a jury in February, according to a court document filed in December.
Christopher Hort, 54, was driving a 2012 Honda Pilot when he hit John David King, 23, along state Route 45 in Penn Township, state police at Rockview wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
King, an Amish man from Spring Mills who worked as a roofer, died in April 2020 of blunt force trauma.
Hort, who is the son-in-law of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, was accused of continuing toward his State College home without stopping. He told investigators he thought he hit a deer.
Hort’s SUV was heavily damaged in the crash, police wrote. The damage included a broken windshield and buckled hood.
“Despite extraordinary damage to Hort’s vehicle, Hort failed — by his own admission — to stop at the scene of this collision as required by law,” investigators wrote in the affidavit.
Hort has remained free since the crash. His bail was set at $50,000 unsecured.
Only three documents tied to the case were filed in 2021, two of which approved delaying the case. The third asked a Centre County judge to force defense lawyer Tony De Boef to turn over any expert reports that could be presented at trial.
De Boef did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna declined comment.
Hort is charged with one felony count of accidents involving death. Probation is not an option for a conviction on the charge. State law requires a mandatory minimum sentence of at least three years in state prison, along with at least a $2,500 fine.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Jan. 14.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 9:02 AM.