Driver accused of high-speed crash into Cleveland apartment building, setting off fatal explosion, found guilty
‘Christopher Terry made the idiotic decision to drive 100 mph over the speed limit causing a crash and an explosion that cost 68-year-old April Yarbrough her life.’
Christopher Terry — the man accused of crashing a car into an apartment building in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, setting off a gas line and triggering a fatal explosion — has been found guilty by a jury in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
Terry was found guilty on Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter, vehicular assault, tampering with evidence, and failure to stop after an accident involving property of others. He will be sentenced by Judge Ashley Kilbane on March 3.
“Christopher Terry made the idiotic decision to drive 100 mph over the speed limit causing a crash and an explosion that cost 68-year-old April Yarbrough her life,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley in a statement. “Today’s conviction is the obvious result of his horrendous decision.”
CASE BACKGROUND
Authorities say on Nov. 19, 2023, Terry was driving a 2019 Dodge Challenger over 120 miles per hour on East 139th Street near Kinsman Road when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into trees, traveled through several front yards, struck the porch of an apartment building, and traveled another 130 feet before it finally crashed into the front porch of a home on East 139th Street.
After the crash, investigators say Terry exited his vehicle and fled the scene on foot. His passenger, a 40-year-old man, sustained injuries from the crash.
When the car struck the apartment building in the 3400 block of East 139th Street, it caused severe damage to the gas line. Minutes after the crash, the building exploded.
Yarbrough’s body was later found in the rubble of the apartment explosion.
The Cleveland Division of Fire deployed over 60 firefighters to deal with the explosion. Two were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
“The car was across the sidewalk on the front lawns of the apartment building as it was coming up. It started some distance down on 139th St., struck the front of that apartment building, came over here and struck the house,” said Lt. Mike Norman of the Cleveland Division of Fire. “So when it struck the apartment building they believe that a gas line was ruptured and then the leaking gas eventually found an ignition source and that was the cause of the explosion.”
