The 19-year-old Milford man accused in the August theft of a David Hasselhoff sign from a Shelton gas station told police a day after the incident he didn’t know a store clerk who tried to stop him had been injured seriously during the theft until he saw news reports about it.
The man, Adam Holter, appeared at Superior Court in Derby last Thursday (Nov. 14), where he pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree assault and second-degree reckless endangerment, according to court records.
Shelton police charged Holter in October after an investigation that lasted several weeks.
But Holter came forward identifying himself as the driver of the car involved in the theft a day after it happened, telling investigators he thought stealing the sign would be a funny prank but became sick to his stomach when he saw news reports saying the clerk, 36-year-old Jason Crowley, had been seriously hurt.
“I have been sick all day … I cannot live thinking I was going to hide what happened,” Holter told police, according to an arrest warrant in the case.
Holter is free on $10,000 bond. His next appearance at Superior Court in Derby is scheduled for Dec. 16.
The alleged crime gained national attention because of the bizarre circumstances and the fact that Hasselhoff himself even commented on the case through social media.
‘Terrible And Difficult Case’
Holter’s lawyer, John Walkley, said Friday that it’s too early in his involvement in the case to comment extensively on it.
“It’s a terrible and difficult case,” Walkley said. “We have to let things play out through the court system and see where it goes.”
According to the warrant police obtained to charge Holter written by Detective Ben Trabka, police received a flurry of 911 calls minutes after the incident about 1 a.m. Aug. 20 at the Cumberland Farms gas station at 819 River Road.
Officers arrived to find Crowley on the ground in the parking lot badly hurt, with road rash on his head and blood coming from his ears.
Witnesses told officers a black sport utility vehicle had pulled into the lot of the store about 12:30 a.m. and parked next to a light pole with a David Hasselhoff-themed advertisement on it.
The vehicle sat in the lot for about a half-hour before a man got out of it, took the Hasselhoff sign off the pole, put it into his car, then got back in the driver’s seat.
Crowley saw what was happening and ran out of the store to the passenger’s side of the SUV, witnesses told police.
“If you put the signs back I won’t call the police,” they quoted Crowley as saying.
“Moments later the SUV started to drive away and Jason tried holding on and followed,” one witness told police.
Clerk Injured Seriously
But the SUV sped away out of the lot, and as Crowley tried to hang on, he was spun around, flipped backward, and landed on his head before tumbling about another 10 feet, according to the witness accounts documented in the warrant.
Crowley was rushed by EMS to Bridgeport Hospital, where doctors later told police he had suffered multiple contusions to his brain and had gone into a coma as a result.
When detectives asked Crowley’s mother how he was doing weeks later, the warrant says she told detectives he had just been released from the intensive care unit at Wallingford’s Gaylord Hospital but still couldn’t verbalize his thoughts.
“At this point it is unclear to the medical professionals if the brain injuries will be permanent or not,” police wrote in the warrant Oct. 2.
Valley Indy efforts to reach Crowley’s family were not successful.
Detectives checked the surveillance videos from the store but the footage of the incident was too dark and grainy to be of very much use, according to the warrant.
“All that is visible is Crowley running towards the sign area and taillights of the suspect vehicle lighting up and taking off from that spot,” the warrant says. “These officers could not observe that well what occurred next but the vehicle never stops and the witnesses are observed running to Crowley in the lot.”
The case attracted widespread media attention, even prompting Hasselhoff himself to Tweet about the incident, saying, “I am shocked & truly saddened about the Cumberland Farms store clerk tragedy My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with him and his family!”
Driver Comes Forward
About 5 p.m. the day after the incident, Trabka got a cell phone call from Holter during which Holter identified himself as the driver of the SUV.
“Holter stated he was physically sick over the entire incident and just wanted to come and tell his side of the story,” the warrant says.
Later that day, Holter met with Trabka and Detective Michael Fusco at the Shelton Police Department and told them he did not know Crowley had been hurt.
“Holter stated he had no idea that the clerk even touched his SUV during the incident,” the warrant says. “Holter stated that he went home last night and told his father they got the sign and they laughed. Holter stated he did not know the clerk was injured until this morning when he heard it on the news.”
The warrant says Holter gave police a sworn written statement trying to explain the motive for the theft.
“There is a craze around the Internet to get the David Hasselhoff posters from the Cumberland Farms,” Holter’s statement said. “I thought it would be really funny to steal one.”
So he told police he and his girlfriend, along with another friend, went to the Shelton store to “take the sign as a prank.”
But after the signs were in his truck, he saw Crowley running toward his vehicle, he told police.
“He got close and I thought he was going to hit my passenger window, which was closed. I just gunned it and drove out of the parking lot … I would never imagine he would have grabbed onto my car,” Holter told police.
“If I knew I hit anyone, I could have stopped and told them it was just a prank and helped them,” Holter added, pledging to cooperate with detectives.
Holter’s girlfriend and friend gave police a similar account when interviewed that day, but his backseat passenger had a slightly different recollection.
The man said Crowley “grabbed the mirror like a choke hold” and was telling Holter to return the sign or his license plates would be reported to the police.
“Adam sped of and the guy was holding onto the mirror like he was trying to stop the car,” Holter’s passenger told police. “As soon as Adam drove away the guy disappeared. I did not see the guy fall, but I heard a thump sound. I told Adam, but he did not believe me.”
