MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – In an apparent rush to get to a strip club, a man drove nearly 120 mph along Miami Gardens Drive in July seconds before he lost control of his vehicle and slammed it into a tree, killing one of his passengers, according to police.
A little more than a month after the deadly crash, Miami Gardens police arrested Richaard Terrell Hallman, 25, of South Miami, on a reckless vehicular homicide charge on Monday.
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Authorities said Hallman was driving with two other passengers just after 3:45 a.m. on July 14. He would tell officers they were coming from a lounge and headed to The Office Gentlemen’s Club, a little less than three miles east of the crash site, to celebrate the surviving passenger’s birthday, they said.
Police said vehicle data revealed Hallman was driving 118 mph eastbound five seconds before he hit a curb, crossed the median and struck a tree head-on on the opposite side of the six-lane road, near Northwest 24th Avenue.
The vehicle rebounded and the passenger’s side of the vehicle struck tree again, police said, killing the passenger, a woman, sitting in the rear.
“While speaking to (Hallman), a strong odor of alcoholic beverage was emitting from his breath, his eyes were blood-shot and watery and his speech was slurred,” the investigating officer wrote in an arrest report.
Police said medics took Hallman to Jackson North Medical Center for observation and staff performed a blood draw.
Authorities said they received the results on Aug. 8 and that Hallman tested positive for ethanol and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
They said they questioned him on Monday. A portion of his statement was redacted from the arrest report, but an unredacted portion states that “all he remembers was the vehicle was smoking and water was gushing out of the ground. (Hallman) stated he pulled (the woman) out the vehicle, sat her up against his legs and waited for fire rescue.”
The arrest report doesn’t identify the victim.
Hallman was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $15,000 bond as of Tuesday afternoon, jail records show.