John Jefferson
Maecee Lathers tells responding officers that she’s from the future and that her name is Mercedes (Miami-Dade Police Department).
Bodycam video released by the Miami-Dade Police Department showed a self-styled Instagram model screaming and after she allegedly ran a red light while high on “pink cocaine,” crashed into another car, killed two men, and told cops that she was “from the future.”
The video of the law enforcement response begins with an officer arriving on scene at around 7 a.m., at an intersection in Miami, Fla., where 24-year-old Maecee Lathers allegedly slammed her Mercedes into a Suzuki, killed Abraham Molina and his friend Jesus Rubio, and injured Molina fiancée Juanita Hernandez while they were on their way to work.
Maecee Lathers crash scene (Miami-Dade Police Department).
The officer walked down the street and found Lathers on her back in the road. Once surrounded by cops, she was placed in cuffs and placed face-down in the street.
The suspect face-down on the pavement (Miami-Dade Police Department).
Around the 8:55 minute mark of the video, you can hear the suspect vomiting. Then the officers tell her to “chill out” and flip onto her side.
While on her back instead, Lathers looked up and the sky and, at the 10:25 mark, let out a scream.
Maecee Lathers tells officers she’s from the future and has a crystal ball (Miami-Dade Police Department).
“My name is Mercedes! Mercedes,” the suspect Mercedes driver said next. “I’m from the future” and had a “crystal ball.”
“Awesome, amazing,” the male officer sarcastically responded. “Are you on drugs?”
The cops could be heard saying that she had acknowledged being on the ketamine-based party drug “tusi” or “2C,” otherwise known as “pink cocaine.”
From there, Lathers was loaded onto a stretcher in a state of partial undress.
Now, that the toxicology reports have come back, prosecutors have filed DUI manslaughter charges in the deaths of Molina and Rubio, which brought Lathers’ house arrest to an end Tuesday. The prosecution has now moved for pretrial detention, and a hearing on that front has been scheduled for 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 16.
As Law&Crime has reported, Lathers initially posted bail after pleading not guilty 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 Molina, Hernandez, and Rubio were driving in.
The DUI manslaughter charges were reportedly a consequence of toxicology reports that allegedly confirmed Lathers’ drug use.
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.
The DUI manslaughter charges are punishable by at least four years upon conviction but could also mean up to three decades in prison.
Jason Kandel contributed to this report.
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