Arrest warrant out for top NFL prospect UGA DL Jalen Carter after fleeing scene of fatal car crash that resulted in deaths of UGA teammate and staffer
This is a huge story. Former UGA DL Jalen Carter and projected top 5 pick now has a warrant out for his arrest after he was street racing a teammate and staffer at twice the speed limit, the other car crashed resulting in 2 deaths, he fled the scene, and proceeded to lie to police about where he was
Maybe. I am not sure if there is a "better" legally in this situation. Reckless driving causing death or injury is not that big of a step down from DUI causing it. These guys were intentionally drag racing and killed several people doing it. Speaking very technically, this dude is hit up either way and is likely going to prison. Intoxication can also be proven by ways other than breath test, from witness testimony and even circumstantially.
It appears he's only facing a couple of misdemeanors at the moment.
This is a major personal gripe about the way traffic violence is enabled in our country. Reckless driving that results in someone's death frequently gets the misdemeanor treatment - like a "failure to yield" citation. Someone dies and the driver responsible might not even get a ticket, let alone a suspended license or prison sentence.
Difference between misdemeanor and felony homicide by vehicle here in Georgia is 12 months in jail versus 15 years in prison. Not uncommon for judges to max out sentencing on either charge, but especially for felonies (which would include a dui homicide).
Not sure about specifically in GA, but leaving the scene can also be argued by the prosecution as showing a conscious of guilt and that's probably going to be their strongest argument for impairment outside witness testimony saying they were intoxicated or acted/drove like they were intoxicated. Given the facts, it sounds like there is no implied consent refusal, which is usually the strongest evidence against someone in a case with no breath/blood test. Not enough info here to say how strong of a case for intoxication there is here, but sounds like a slam dunk on reckless/careless driving and drag racing (which I imagine has a built in presumption of reckless driving within it).
I practice in Georgia. While every prosecutor I've ever dealt with in a situation like this has assumed intoxication, they've never charged it based on the absolute lack of evidence. There is no testing or even implied consent refusal to deal with because there is no encounter with the cops (there's a three hour window for a bac to be usable).
Being that he's charged with misdemeanors currently, he's better off having avoided the dui which has pretty severe mandatory minimum sentencing requirements. The only one that's arguably worse is misdemeanor fleeing and eluding, but since he wasn't pursued at the scene, that charge isn't applicable.
wtf is going on in Athens? multiple arrests for driving / drunken stupidity this offseason
i guess Spurrier was right
Perhaps a feeling of invincibility? These are their leaders acting like fools. Way to set an example fellas.
That sounds like a pretty big mistake.
This isn't meant to go after you in any way, but I've been fighting a quiet war on using "mistake" when "poor choice" is MUCH more accurate. Mistake is using a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon, or, more seriously, forgetting to tighten the lug nuts properly. Poor choices have foreseeable consequences which the person deliberately ignores and proceeds with his course. Mistake implies something far less deliberate.
If your post was meant as sarcasm, I'm sorry I whiffed on it. Again, I'm not trying to scold YOU; just doing my get off my language lawn thing for all of us.
I simply it to 'committed a felony' to avoid confusion
You can qualify it as a mistake or a choice however you wish
I feel the same way about the use of the word "tragedy" when words like "atrocity" or "barbarity" are more appropriate.
This is really sad, but it won't stop a team from drafting him in the top 5.
I don’t know any significant details here, but - it would seem - vehicular manslaughter is the “lowest level” charge he could face.
This is incredibly tragic. I’m at a loss of words.
Sadly true. He won't be getting jail time, and will likely just get a slap on the wrist. Probably some sort of fine that will be nothing compared to the contract he will be signing shortly.
Some kids are just so dumb and/or have lived such cushy lives free of consequence. You're months away from millions and you risk throwing part of it away to street race drunk. Never ceases to amaze me watching these young guys screw up their lives
OTOH, a lot of people do this stuff without the prospect of 7-8 figure paydays. Reality is that guys, especially, at this age make a lot of terrible decisions. I know I did and I thank the good Lord in heaven that I'm not dead or caused the deaths of anyone else. Seriously.
What a stupid tragedy. Alcohol can lead many people to do incredibly stupid things and for some they'll never understand this until it's too late. Stupid shit is fun and cool though, right? I wonder how many other times they did this and made it home alright.
"Stupid shit is fun, and cool though, right?"
I know you are being sarcastic.... but, no, stupid shit is not fun. I am not saying that I never did dumb things in college or made really bad decisions. I made and did plenty of them. But was there ever a time when fricking drag-racing entered my mind? No. Not ever. Not for a second. Sometimes I am amazed at the completely insane things otherwise "normal" people end up doing.
Your experience may be different from others, is that possible? Sometimes stupid shit is fun.
No doubt that drag racing was stupid. That does not mean that it could not be fun. The fact that many people do it despite the obvious risks and consequences indicates that at least some people find it fun and exhilarating. Personally, I would be one of them. If there were absolutely no risks or downsides to drag racing, would I find it fun? Yes.
Not that this excuses anything he did, because being party to killing someone is quite serious, but 2 other articles I read said the warrants are for 2 misdemeanors - driving recklessly and racing.
That could be strategic on the part of the prosecutor. The charges can easily upgrade later.
Damn, I thought for sure he was a lock to the Bears. Hard pass now.
This explains why he wasn't participating at the combine.
EDIT: I see he's schedule to do interviews. Can he do that with arrest warrants out?
Sure, it would just be a very different kind of interview. That said, I'm sure his lawyer (and agent, for that matter) would tell him to NOT interview with this looming.
Unbelievably foolish behavior for someone who is projected to be 1 (1). Now is he undraftable? Could move Mazi up for a team that needs an interior DL.
Undraftable? Are you forgetting that the NFL doesn't give a shit about stuff like this?
He'll get a misdemeanor and pay some fines and everyone will forget about this come September.
He's still going top 5. Probably top 3 and he'll still get a massive bro hug from Roger Goodell.
Sad.
Dude guys have been playing in the league where there is video of them smashing a woman to pieces in an elevator. This means nothing to the NFL.
He ain't giving any interviews now.
Stock about to drop
I guarantee there are teams sitting in spots 5-20 hoping he might fall to them now and become the next Warren Sapp. NFL teams will figure out a way to spin this so fans accept him.
And fans will quickly overlook it if he makes a big impact.
I work with a couple of Bears fans who don't need to be spun. They said they can now trade down and still pick him up at a lower spot.
such a shitty situation all the way around.....
Meh. They're misdemeanors. But he might slip to #6 now!
How is our everyone just going along with the description of the other passengers as "staffers"?
You can look up her name - it's in other articles - but I that ADs typically frown on 24-year-old "staffers" fraternizing with athletes, especially female staffers. There's a whole lot sexism, hypocrisy, paternalism, etc. wrapped up in that reality (and there is probably also some legal matters going on between her family and various parties) but that undoubtedly is the case here that the fact she was in the car at 2:30 AM with a drunk athlete racing down a busy street isn't something anyone wants to touch if they don't have to given the tragedy that resulted.
She was drunk and driving the car that crashed.
I feel like Harbaugh would already be forced to resign if this happened on his watch.
Makes sense. I thought I read in one of the other articles the dead player also had a high BAC but maybe I conflated the two.
It's weird to me that the big story here seems to be that Jalen Carter is going to fall a bit in the draft and might do a short jail stint at some point.
As I understand it, the car that crashed was a university vehicle, driven by an employee of the Athletic Department, who was more than twice the legal limit on alcohol, street racing against at least one football player, and which resulted in the death of a student athlete. To me, that's an order of magnitude bigger than the Carter story.
I think the whole situation is the big the story. It's a whole combination of things which is tragic
Exactly. We are talking about the draft position of a college player who will likely plead to some misdemeanor speeding offense. Don't care.
Meanwhile we have a public university employee that appears on the surface to be functionally a prostitute and the vaunted 4th estate is doing it's best impression of the 3 no-evil monkeys. You would think at least one journalist would want to do some investigating, wouldn't you? How many young staffers like this are on UGA's staff? How about Michigan's?
But remember: we are under NCAA investigation right now for….. hamburgers.
It's the same story. I understand wanting the emphasis to be on the loss of life, but Carter is a part of that. Its relevant, to learn and create barriers so this doesn't recur, to know what Carter was doing with the others before the incident, why he was racing, and his actions. The root cause may be the driver engaged in a race who then crashed, but a casual factor is the other person who races.
"wrong place, wrong time"
signed,
Nate Oats
Hopefully the Lions can get him in the second round now!
/S
Well I was hoping the first. He ain’t dropping far.
If Carter wasn't drunk he never would have fled the scene.
If nobody was drunk, there probably wouldn't have been a scene.
He'll still go top-10 and unfortunately, this will probably all be forgotten in a matter of months.
Let's remember, he's going to a league that still employed Greg Hardy, giving the guy ten game suspension (which then got reduced to four) after he assaulted his girlfriend, and is the same league that is probably ready to give Josh Gordon another shot. Because everyone deserves an eighth chance.
Will his draft stock tumble a bit? Yeah, probably. But barring any information that comes out where he directly contributed to these people's deaths, he'll get a slap on the wrist and a fistful of cash come draft night. Especially if he gets tried in a court in the Athens area, the narrative will be that he's a good kid who made a mistake, deserves a second chance, blah blah freaking blah.
So with that......for all the Lions fans on the board. Let's say Carter is still on the board at 6. You take him, now knowing all of this?