The lawyer for the Philadelphia man who crashed his vehicle into a Schuylkill County daycare center filled with children on a June morning says his client is “very remorseful.”
John Capobianco, 55, appeared before Magisterial District Judge Edward Lewis in Port Carbon on Tuesday morning. He’s accused of crashing an SUV into the Little Sunshines Day Care Center along Route 209 in Port Carbon on the morning of June 29. There were 22 children and 4 adults in the building at the time. All were uninjured.
Capobianco is facing a second-degree felony charge of causing a catastrophe, 26 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, misdemeanor counts of DUI of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also faces numerous summary traffic offenses, including having fictitious inspection stickers. All those charges were held for Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas by Lewis.
The judge also denied a motion to reduce Capobianco’s bail from $150,000 to $100,000.
Following Tuesday’s hearing, Capobianco’s attorney, Jeremy-Evan Alva, of Bala Cynwyd, told Coal Region Canary that his client “is very remorseful for what happened.”
Police say Capobianco had a large amount of methamphetamine in his system that June morning when he crashed a vehicle into the daycare center. Capobianco’s vehicle went airborne when it hit concrete bollards on the side of the building and crashed through an exterior wall and into the building. He had to be extricated from his 2013 Nissan Pathfinder and was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
Capobianco was arraigned and jailed the same day.
Alva acknowledged Tuesday that even if he were to get his client’s bail reduced in Schuylkill County, he’s still wanted on a probation warrant out of Philadelphia County. Court records show Capobianco was convicted of robbery and aggravated assault in June 2008 and sentenced to 8-16 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation. He was also convicted of simple assault in 2024 and sentenced to 2 years of probation.
Alva argued to Lewis that he felt the $150,000 was more of a punishment than bail and said his client is not a flight risk because he’d held a full-time job prior to the incident in Port Carbon this summer.
The attorney also said he’s researching whether or not the accusations against his client rise to the level of the felony causing a catastrophe charge. The law on causing a catastrophe reads as follows:
§ 3302. Causing or risking catastrophe.
(a) Causing catastrophe.–A person who causes a catastrophe by explosion, fire, flood, avalanche, collapse of building, release of poison gas, radioactive material or other harmful or destructive force or substance, or by any other means of causing potentially widespread injury or damage, including selling, dealing in or otherwise providing licenses or permits to transport hazardous materials in violation of 75 Pa.C.S. Ch. 83 (relating to hazardous materials transportation), commits a felony of the first degree if he does so intentionally or knowingly, or a felony of the second degree if he does so recklessly.
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