John Jefferson
Left: Miami-Dade bodycam shows Maecee Lathers on the ground after the deadly crash. Right: Lathers appears in court on Sept. 10, 2024, and is taken back to jail (WTVJ).
An Instagram model arrested as the speeding driver behind the wheel of a Mercedes that ran a red light, crashed into another car, killed two men and injured one man’s fiancée while they were on their way to work — all while the suspect was allegedly under the influence of a party drug dubbed “pink cocaine” — now faces even more serious charges in the case and was hauled back to jail.
Maecee Lathers, a 24-year-old self-styled social media model from New York, had a recent stint under house arrest with GPS monitoring, but local NBC affiliate WTVJ reports that she was jailed again after being hit with DUI manslaughter charges in the Aug. 10 deaths of Abraham Molina and his friend Jesus Rubio.
The charges were reportedly a consequence of toxicology reports that allegedly confirmed Lathers’ drug use.
As Law&Crime has reported, Lathers initially posted bail after pleading not guilt to charges of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, driving on a suspended license and leaving the scene of a crash, a collision that involved three cars: her Mercedes, a Ranger Rover, and the Suzuki that Moline, Hernandez, and Rubio were driving in.
When officers arrived on scene to arrest Lathers, she was vomiting and allegedly admitted to being high on the ketamine-based party drug “tusi” or “2C,” otherwise known as “pink cocaine,” and that she was “from the future and had a crystal ball.”
Lathers was allegedly driving without a valid license and at 57 mph just moments before the crash, then had hit the “accelerator at 100%,” ramping up her speed to 78 mph and causing the deadly collision.
Left: Maecee Lathers (Miami-Dade Corrections). Right: Lathers pictured in bond court (Law&Crime).
While a 24-year-old man driving the Range Rover survived, the two men in the Suzuki did not. Only Juanita Hernandez, Molina’s fiancée, survived with injuries. Hernandez has said on a GoFundMe page after the crash that she was in the front passenger seat and that they were all on their way to work.
A photo shows crash victims Abraham Ismael Molina Cruz, Juanita Hernandez, Jesus Rubio. Only Hernandez survived (WPLG).
“Abraham’s son, just 16 years old, has been left without the love and care of his father, who was his whole world. Due to my injuries, I am unable to work at the moment, and the young man’s life has changed radically. His mother, who lives in Nicaragua and suffers from Parkinson’s, is also now grieving, helpless and without the financial support her son provided,” Hernandez wrote.
A pretrial detention hearing in Lathers’ case is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 16, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The DUI manslaughter charges are punishable by at least four years upon conviction but could also mean up to three decades in prison.
Law&Crime reached out to Lathers’ defense attorney of record for comment.
Jason Kandel contributed to this report.
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