Second bar linked to fatal I-85 crash reaches deal with ABC

The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission on Wednesday signed off on the deal that calls for the liquor permits for He's Not Here to be suspended for 30 days, starting Feb. 12, with the final nine days of the penalty suspended if the bar owners pay a $5,000 fine by Feb. 5.

Authorities said Chandler Michael Kania used a fake ID to drink at He's Not Here and La Residence in the early hours of July 19. A short time later, they said, he was driving north in the southbound lanes near the split of I-85 and Interstate 40 in Orange County when his Jeep Wrangler collided with a Suzuki driven by Felecia Harris.

Harris, 49, of Charlotte, her friend Darlene McGee, 46, of Charlotte, and Harris' granddaughter Jahnice Beard, 6, of Brooklyn, N.Y., were killed in the fiery wreck. Harris' daughter, Jahnia King, 9, was seriously injured.

Toxicology tests show that Kania had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17, which is more than twice the level at which a driver is considered impaired under North Carolina law. Because Kania is underage, however, any alcohol in his system would have been illegal.

La Residence paid a $5,000 fine in December, and its liquor permits were suspended for 14 days for violations connected to Kania.

He's Not Here also agreed to pay another $10,000 in fines to avoid two 50-day suspensions of its liquor permits for underage drinking at the bar in March 2014 and April 2015.

Kania is under house arrest in Asheboro awaiting trial on three counts each of second-degree murder and felony death by motor vehicle and one count each of felony serious injury by motor vehicle, driving while impaired, driving left of center, obtaining alcohol by a minor and underage consumption of alcohol as a minor. A grand jury also indicted him on an aggravating factor linked to a fight he had with friends who tried to stop him from driving after drinking that night.