A Florida Statute says criminal liability in a hit-and-run case requires proof that the driver knew or should have reasonably known about injury or death.
BRADENTON — A week before the holiday, Donna Keefer received the worst kind of Christmas surprise.
She assumed the Zoom video call with the State Attorney’s Office would be to share good news. Instead, prosecutors shattered Keefer’s world when they said the criminal charges in the hit-and-run that killed her son and a family friend will be dropped.
With a trial set for early February, Keefer and her daughter, Deborah Balthaser, expected to get justice in the case five years after the fatal Palmetto crash. From the beginning, Florida Highway Patrol and the State Attorney’s office said they had a solid case against the driver.
But the call didn’t go as either of them expected.
“They dropped the bomb and we were all blown away,” said Balthaser. “It knocked the wind out of us.”
Prosecutors told them that Nelson would no longer face charges for what happened along U.S. 19 on Aug. 17, 2019, the night 47-year-old Donald Keefer and 13-year-old Tyler Pittard were struck and killed by what witnesses described as a white Chevy Silverado just before 3 a.m.
Family seeks justice in hit-and-run crash
The news shook them both to the core, they said. It was so stressful that Donna landed in the hospital shortly thereafter and now takes anxiety medication, she said.
“I was so disgusted with the court. For them to notify us right before Christmas? I got so worked up,” Donna said.
While prosecutors outlined several reasons for the dismissal of charges in a memo, they pointed to a Florida Statute that says criminal liability in a hit-and-run case requires proof that the driver knew or should have reasonably known about injury or death.
The State concluded they would be unable to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt in court, according to the memo.
During the investigation, Nelson told authorities he left the scene of the crash and waited until the next day to call law enforcement because he thought he hit an animal, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
But that doesn’t sit right with the families of those who lost loved ones that night. For Donna, Balthaser and Pittard’s grandmother, Tammy Fazioli, Nelson’s explanation is unsatisfactory and borders on offensive, they said.
“It’s just such an injustice to the people who died and to the family that’s left to deal with it,” said Fazioli. “To think you can kill two people and maim another one and just say, ‘I thought I hit an animal,’ and get away with it and walk free. Meanwhile, I have to visit a grave.”
Should Florida law change?
Fazioli and Balthaser say they take issue with how Florida law operates when it comes to hit-and-runs now that they’ve seen how the process can play out firsthand.
Balthaser said she thinks the Florida Statute requiring the state to prove that the driver should have known they hit a person is a loophole that can be exploited and would like to see the law changed.
“My next goal is I’m trying to contact a senator and see what I need to do to get this law changed,” Balthaser said.
But Nelson’s Attorney, Stephen Romine, said that “the problem in this case was not Florida law,” but instead that three adults “dangerously decided to walk with a juvenile on U.S. 19, around 2:30 a.m., in the dark, in inclement weather, dressed in dark clothes” and “entered into the lane of travel of an oncoming vehicle.”
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Source: tampabay
