Middletown Man Pleads in Fatal Powerboat Crash That Killed Passenger

A Middletown man faces up to five years in prison for a felony charge of manslaughter stemming from a fatal boat accident in a Northeastern Connecticut lake in April.

Michael J. Antol, 42, pleaded guilty Friday in Superior Court in Rockville, the Hartford Courant reports, for crashing a powerboat alongside a lake in Union in April 2012 and causing the death of a passenger.

Last April, Antol turned himself into the Department of Environmental and Energy Protection’s EnCon Police unit after learning there was a warrant for his arrest in connection with the boat crash.

According to a DEEP press release, Antol was driving a 17-foot powerboat in Mashapaug Lake in the town of Union on April 21 when the boat ran aground.

There were two other passengers aboard Antol’s vessel, one of them being 40-year-old Richard J. Franas Jr., of the Amston section of the town of Hebron. According to the DEEP, Franas sustained serious injuries following the crash and was rescued by first responders who arrived around 11:30 a.m.

Franas was rushed to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, and later transferred to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. Due to the severity of his injuries, the victim died the following day. Antol suffered minor injuries in the accident.

Antol is due back in Rockville Superior Court on March 21 for sentencing.