Second teen dies after Fayetteville wreck

A second teenager involved in a weekend wreck in Fayetteville has died from her injuries, police said Monday.

Cheyanna Cummings, 18, of Hope Mills, was among seven people traveling in a Nissan Pathfinder around 2 a.m. Saturday when, investigators say, the driver, Bryanna Hamilton, 17, lost control and flipped the vehicle on Rosehill Road.

Cummings died Sunday afternoon at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.

"Bryanna is really beat up form the accident, but she's more beat up mentally," Hamilton's mother, Letresa Lilly, said Monday. "She's hurting. She and Chey were like sisters."

Lilly said she wasn't sure where the teens were headed when the wreck happened, but Fayetteville police said Monday that Hamilton was on her way back to a birthday party that she had left earlier to pick up others who were in the car.

Denzel Graves, 16, of Spring Lake, died Saturday at the scene of the wreck. Neither Graves nor Cummings were wearing their seat belts, investigators said.

Hamilton faces charges of driving while impaired and driving without a license.

Fayetteville police Sgt. Eric Dow said Hamilton admitted that she had been drinking, although she did not know how much. Speed was likely a factor, he said, based on interviews with witnesses.

"You’ve got an unlicensed driver, underage driver, inexperienced driver, speed, careless driving, alcohol and overloaded vehicle," Dow said. "I mean, that’s definitely a recipe for disaster, which obviously that’s what happened."

North Carolina's Alcohol Law Enforcement Division is investigating where the party, where, police say, adults might have been present.

Hamilton and four other passengers – Alya Shaw, 19, Chyna Harris, 18, Benyetta Nicholas, 17, and Isaiah Nicholas, 14, all from Spring Lake – were taken to Cape Fear Valley.

Hamilton, Benyetta Nicholas and Isaiah Nicholas were treated and released. Shaw and Harris' injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.