MIAMI GARDENS, Florida. – According to police, a man apparently rushing to get to a strip club drove along Miami Gardens Drive at nearly 120 mph in July before losing control of his vehicle a few seconds later and crashing it into a tree, killing one of his passengers.
Just over a month after the fatal accident, Miami Gardens police on Monday arrested 25-year-old Richaard Terrell Hallman of South Miami on a charge of vehicular manslaughter.
Authorities said Hallman was traveling with two other passengers shortly after 3:45 a.m. on July 14. He told officials they were coming out of a lounge and were on their way to the Office Gentlemen’s Club, about three miles east of the crash site, to celebrate the surviving passenger’s birthday, they said.
According to police, vehicle data showed Hallman was traveling east at 120 mph for five seconds before he struck a curb, crossed the center line and struck a tree head-on on the opposite side of the six-lane road, near Northwest 24th Avenue.
The vehicle rebounded and hit a tree again with its passenger side, police said. The passenger in the back seat, a woman, was killed.
“While I was speaking with (Hallman), there was a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, his eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he was slurring his speech,” the investigator wrote in a police report.
According to police, paramedics took Hallman to Jackson North Medical Center for observation, where staff took a blood sample.
Authorities said they received the results on August 8 and that Hallman tested positive for ethanol and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
They said they interviewed him on Monday. Part of his statement was redacted from the arrest report, but an unredacted portion says that “he only remembers the vehicle smoking and water gushing from the ground. (Hallman) stated he pulled (the woman) out of the vehicle, leaned her against his legs and waited for the fire department.”
The police report does not mention the identity of the victim.
Jail records show Hallman was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on $15,000 bail as of Tuesday afternoon.
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