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Fatal Boating Accident Arraignment Save Email Print
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP)
Posted: 7:30 PM Nov 14, 2007
Last Updated: 2:36 PM Nov 16, 2007

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A 32-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to charges he killed an off-duty Virginia police officer and his girlfriend in a drunken boating crash in New York.

Craig Cordes, of Syracuse, was arraigned Wednesday day on two counts of first-degree vehicular manslaughter, as well as boating while intoxicated and other charges.

Authorities say Cordes was drunk at the controls of his motorboat when it broadsided the victims' boat in the early morning of July 8. The crash killed 32-year-old John Kelly of Richmond and his girlfriend 26-year-old Heather Wilkins. The couple were vacationing in the area with family.

Authorities say Cordes stopped to rescue two friends who were thrown from his 19-foot-long boat and then left without helping Kelly and Wilkins. They say the law student at the University of Arizona, Cordes had spent most of that afternoon and evening with eight or nine friends at three bars in Skaneateles.

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