STUART, Fla. — The teen driver who raced through a stop sign in his Pontiac Firebird and killed two passengers in another car testified Monday that he was "showing off" and considered it "cool for a car with a big engine to go fast."

Stephen Bromstrup recounts the fatal crash.

Stephen Bromstrup crashed into a Cadillac at about 75 mph, killing Sarah Stone, 14, and Alexandra Quaroni, 13, in June 2002.

Bromstrup, now 19, took the stand in the wrongful death suit brought by Sarah's parents, Elizabeth and Tim Stone, against the hosts of the pool party that Bromstrup attended before the accident.

Story continues

advertisement

This is the first time the victims' parents have heard the driver describe the accident in his own words.

Bromstrup tearfully recounted how his friend in the passenger seat egged him on as he sped down Kanner Highway through the O'Briens' upscale neighborhood.

"My friend Danny told me to floor it," Bromstrup told jurors. "I felt like that was the thing to do, so I did it."

Another passenger in the Cadillac, Jennifer McKinney, 14, survived after being thrown out of the car. The driver, Edward Wetherbee, was also injured.

Bromstrup, 16 at the time of the accident, avoided going to trial after pleading no contest to two counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of culpable negligence, but was sentenced as an adult to nine years in prison. His sentence was later reduced to seven years.

Despite the fatalities involved in the crash, the wrongful death trial hinges on whether the O'Briens took reasonable steps to prevent minors from drinking alcohol at their home, not whether Bromstrup was responsible for the accident.

The Stones allege that the O'Briens did not do enough to prevent Bromstrup and the other 18 teens who attended the party from consuming alcohol, violating Florida's open house party statute.

The O'Briens, who own a local hurricane shutter company, hosted the barbecue for their 15-year-old daughter Jenny at their two-acre compound, which is situated on a lake with a private dock.

The couple do not dispute that minors drank alcohol at their home. Barbara O'Brien discovered several teens drinking gin and beer, according to her attorney, but each time she emptied the containers and instructed the teens that it was not acceptable to consume alcohol at her home.

'A preventable disaster'

During opening statements Monday, the Stones' attorney Guy Rubin said the O'Briens ignored "red flags" about underage drinking and their ignorance resulted in the alcohol-related death of Sarah Stone.

"This was a preventable disaster," Rubin told the six-member jury. "Red flags were waving about the consumption of alcohol ... and should have resulted in caution and safety, not in having a good time."

Rubin described Barbara O'Brien as an inattentive parent who worked out on her treadmill and drank wine with a girlfriend as a group of unattended teens took shots of gin and downed bottles of beer at her pool deck.

And this wasn't the first time that their daughter's friends illegally drank alcohol at the O'Briens' home, according to Rubin.

"Evidence will show at least half of the [kids at the party] had snuck alcohol or been caught drinking there before June 17, 2002," Rubin said.

Much of Bromstrup's testimony reinforced the Stones' case. Bromstrup said he wasn't worried about getting caught drinking alcohol at the O'Briens' home.

"I knew I wouldn't get in trouble if I got caught," Bromstrup told the jury. "It wasn't, 'If you do that, I'm calling your parents.' ... She just took it."

The O'Briens also violated a Florida curfew that makes it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to drive after 11 p.m., according to Rubin, who told the jury the party ended too late for drivers to make the curfew.

William Reese, who is representing the O'Briens, refuted the depiction of the O'Briens as pushover parents who took underage drinking lightly. Instead, Reese claims Bromstrup will be the only witness to support the Stones' claim.

"Every other witness will say Barbara O'Brien poured it out and yelled at everyone," Reese said. "They did everything possible to make sure there was going to be no use of alcohol at the party."

Reese also denied Bromstrup's claim that he managed to drink his Milwaukee's Best openly by the pool after hobbling on crutches to and from his car, twice, to get beer.

Bromstrup, who had received his driver's license three months before the party, had an injured ankle and was in a cast and on crutches at the time of the accident.

"The accident happened because this 16-year-old boy was showing off to his friends," Reese said.

The trial being held at the 19th Judicial Circuit in Martin County is expected to last two weeks and will be streamed live on Court TV Extra.