MIAMI – Social media model Maecee Marie Lathers was back in Miami-Dade bond court Thursday to face four new charges in connection with a crash that killed two people in downtown Miami in mid-August. Authorities said she told them she was a time-traveler and high on a party drug.
Prosecutors said the new charges come as a result of a vehicle data search warrant which showed that Lathers, 24, of Miami Gardens, had her foot firmly on the gas pedal, driving nearly 80 mph at the time of the Aug. 10 wreck.
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She’s now facing two counts each of reckless vehicular homicide and reckless driving causing serious bodily injury. She was already facing eight other charges, including two counts of leaving the scene of a crash causing death, and first appeared in bond court on Friday, following her release from Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Prosecutors have said they will likely charge her with DUI manslaughter as well, pending the results of a toxicology test.
Police said Lathers, whose license had been suspended since January, was speeding in a white Mercedes-Benz sedan south on North Miami Avenue just after 6:45 a.m. when she blew a red light at Eighth Street and slammed into a black Range Rover.
According to a new arrest report from the Miami Police Department, the vehicle’s data recorders showed she was driving 57 mph five seconds before the crash, accelerating to 78 mph at the moment of impact. The speed limit on that stretch of street is 30 mph.
Both vehicles then collided with a Suzuki sedan with three people inside, police said.
The rear passenger of the Suzuki died at the scene while its driver died at JMH, the arrest report states.
Family members, on a GoFundMe page, identified one of the victims as Abraham Ismael, the father of a 16-year-old son. His partner, Juanita Hernández, was hurt in the crash.
Lathers and the Range Rover driver were also hurt.
Authorities said onlookers had to grab Lathers as she walked away from the scene.
Police said she would tell officers she was under the influence of “tusi,” a party drug, and “that she was from the future and had a crystal ball,” Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer said in Lathers’ last bond court appearance on Friday.
Tusi, or 2C, is described in a 2023 medical journal article as “a new ketamine concoction” also known as “pink cocaine.” That same year, Local 10 News produced a special report on the “nightclub narcotic,” said at the time to be the number one drug seized at Miami International Airport.
Glazer, in giving her a $140,000 bond, house arrest and a no-drive order last Friday, called Lathers “an absolute danger to the community.”
On Thursday morning, Lathers faced Senior Judge Rosa Figarola to answer to the new charges. This time, she appeared wearing a standard orange jail jumpsuit rather than an anti-suicide vest.
The model, whose Instagram posts typically depict the upstate New York native with eyes on the camera and posing seductively, looked down throughout the entire proceeding, appearing sullen.
Lathers’ attorney, Martez Gordon, on Zoom from a hospital parking lot, said the hearing “came out of the blue” and that he wasn’t notified.
“This is an ambush, your honor,” Gordon said.
A prosecutor replied, “It’s not an ambush. There (are) just additional charges that are being filed based on the same underlying incident.”
Eventually, Gordon, who said Lathers had posted her $140,000 bond and was set to “get out either today or tomorrow,” asked Figarola to set a standard $20,000 bond on top of the preexisting bond.
Prosecutors wanted a higher amount and a higher level of house arrest.
“The case is not really a standard case,” the prosecutor said. “She killed two people.”
Figarola replied, “I’m not downplaying that in any way, shape or form.”
She set a slightly increased $26,000 bond and ordered Lathers on a stricter level of house arrest.
Lathers remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Thursday; court records show she’s scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 3.