COYLE

PROVIDENCE — With testimony from a bartender who served him one October afternoon and a firefighter who helped him hours later, a probation violation hearing began yesterday for Patrick G. Coyle, who was charged with drunk driving in the car accident that killed three of his friends in Woonsocket.

Prosecutors have charged Coyle, 21, with violating the probation he is on for an eight-year suspended sentence for a 2005 drug conviction.

Defense attorney Mark Smith, who cross-examined the witnesses during the hearing, appeared to question whether Coyle was driving at the time of the accident.

“All I’m trying to find out is what evidence the prosecution has with respect to their claim,” he said.

Woonsocket firefighter Steven Encarnation, one of the first to arrive at the scene, testified in Superior Court here yesterday that Coyle said he was riding in the back seat of the car at the time of the accident, though Encarnation saw him in the driver’s seat when he arrived.

After pulling himself out of the driver’s side window, Coyle also told rescue personnel that Travis Thifault — who was found dead in the front passenger seat — was driving at the time of the accident, and that he and his friends were at Amvets Post 7 on Chester Street prior to the Oct. 29 accident, Encarnation testified.

“He told me he had a couple of drinks,” he said.

The single-car crash at 10:45 p.m. at the intersection of Winter Street and Harris Avenue, near the entrance to Cold Spring Park, claimed the lives of brothers Victor and Steven Vasquez, 24 and 21, and Thifault, 20. The Vasquez brothers died at the scene, and Thifault was pronounced dead a short time later at Landmark Medical Center. The victims’ family and friends held a candlelight vigil Wednesday night.

Witnesses have said it appeared that the car went straight through the intersection, crashed through a wrought-iron fence and off an embankment, and hit a tree. Photographs entered as evidence by lead prosecutor Stephen Regine showed the white car lying upside-down and nearly flattened by the impact.

Encarnation said it was the worst car accident he’s seen in his 14 years with the department.

Coyle, of 41 Congress St., Woonsocket, has been charged with three counts of driving to endanger, death resulting; three counts of driving under the influence; and one count of driving with a suspended license after the accident. Appearing in court in handcuffs yesterday, Coyle said little but turned to look at his family several times. Severe lacerations on his face as a result of the accident appeared to have healed but some scarring was evident.

Michael J. Healey, spokesman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, said the state’s burden of proof is lower than that of a criminal trial, and that prosecutors must show that Coyle failed to keep the peace and maintain good behavior during his eight-year probation.

“We are saying he clearly did not stay out of trouble,” he said. While the prosecution is not asking that Coyle serve the full eight years of his sentence at this time, Healey said the state “is going to argue strenuously that he serve some time.”

Smith said that if the prosecution can prove that Coyle was operating the car “that would be a pretty clear violation” of his probation. The court will hear additional testimony today.

Other testimony included that of Amvets Post bartender Randy Bergeron, who said Coyle was at the bar when he arrived about five that afternoon and that he served Coyle four or five drinks over the next four hours.

Neighbor John Charron testified that he heard the accident from his house across the street. Looking at the wreckage through the fence, Charron said he saw an arm sticking out of one of the windows and a man crawl out of the vehicle.

Scott Rice, who was turning onto Winter Street from Harris Avenue, said he heard a revving engine at “full-throttle” before seeing a white car barreling toward him.

The car’s speed made him unable to determine who was driving, Rice said during cross-examination by Smith.

At the hearing’s end, Coyle was shackled and handcuffed. He turned again to his family, who waved as Coyle was led out of the courtroom.