Teen charged as an adult for 2022 crash that killed passenger, 15
The State Attorney's Office has decided to charge a 16-year-old boy as an adult in connection with a traffic crash that killed a 15-year-old girl.
The crash occurred on May 10, 2022, at Northeast 14th Street and Northeast 25th Avenue. The boy was the driver and the girl was his passenger.
Ocala Police Department officers investigated the crash, which killed Mackenna Rector, a 10th grader at Vanguard High School.
The original story: Vanguard H.S. student, 15, killed in crash in northeast Ocala; driver, also 15, injured
High school student's death: North Marion High School student killed in two-vehicle wreck on foggy, rural road
Why charge the teen as an adult?
The driver is charged with no valid driver's license causing serious injury or death and vehicular homicide. The Star-Banner is not releasing his name because of his age.
Prosecutors said the decision to charge him as an adult was based on the totality of the circumstances and the medical evidence.
Prosecutors filed the charges on Monday. The boy was booked into the Marion County Jail on Tuesday afternoon, records show.
His first appearance hearing was held Wednesday morning in front of County Judge Robert Landt via Zoom. The judge was at the courthouse and the teen was at the jail. The judge appointed the Public Defender's Office to represent the teen. Bail set at $35,000.
This is how the crash happened
According to OPD Officer William Joedicke's report, a woman who was behind the wheel of an older model Mitsubishi Montero was stopped, facing southbound on Northeast 25th Avenue at the 14th Street intersection. The woman said the traffic light was red, and her vehicle was in the southbound middle lane.
The woman said she saw a vehicle, later identified as an older model Toyota Yaris, speeding northbound in the southbound lane toward her. The Toyota struck the front of her vehicle.
Officers checked the Toyota's event data recorder, or EDR, and it indicated the vehicle was traveling at 57 mph at the time of collision.
Upon impact, the force pushed the Mitsubishi backward, approximately two car lengths, Joedicke wrote in his report. The traffic homicide investigator noted the woman's vehicle finally stopped in the inside travel lane. The Toyota rotated almost 180 degrees and came to rest in the southbound left turn lane, the report stated.
Mackenna was transported to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where she died. Police officials were unable to talk with the teen driver (he was 15 at the time) because of his injuries and because his mother told them she was getting a lawyer.
Surveillance video of the crash
Joedicke was able to watch two security videos from a nearby business that showed the crash. The first video showed the Mitsubishi sitting still at the red light, facing southbound in the inside travel lane. Then, the Toyota, traveling northbound, hits the Mitsubishi.
The second video indicates the Toyota traveling northbound and it appears to be traveling more than the posted 40 mph speed limit.
A county fire rescue official who treated the Toyota driver said the teen told him he had been drinking and he was impaired. Several opened and unopened Twisted Tea alcoholic drinks were in the Toyota, officials said.
Medical records
Officers were able to get a subpoena for the teen driver's medical records. It showed he was impaired and tested positive for opiates, THC and alcohol at the time blood was taken, police said.
Joedicke said he was told the driver's blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit. However, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory said it was unable to test the blood sample for alcohol because the sample size wasn't adequate.
Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Defendant, 16, charged as an adult in 2022 crash in NE Ocala
