Does Florida’s hit-and-run law need to change? Grieving Palmetto family seeks justice

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 Zachary 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.”

Whether the group was on the road or in the grass was a central point of contention during the investigation. The one person in the group who did not get hit by the truck told troopers the night of the crash that it happened in the grass, but prosecutors said investigators later found evidence to contradict that statement. The cone of debris was in the road and a video showed the group walking in the right lane area by the paved shoulder.

“While losing a loved one is an emotional process for those left behind, it does not change what the actual facts established and the law required,” Romine said. “There was no crime.”

But the Keefer family disagrees. If Nelson thought he hit a deer, Balthaser wants to know why he didn’t get out and make sure.

One of the witnesses at the time of the crash said Nelson stopped briefly before leaving the scene, according to an arrest report. Prosecutors said witness testimony supports Nelson’s position that, given the conditions that night, if he had stopped and looked back he would not have seen the victims or evidence that he had been in a crash that involved people.

Romine said that Nelson did stop and look, but “nothing indicated people were hit and his belief it must be a large animal was confirmed as reasonable.”

‘Ripped me apart’

Regardless of the hows or whys, Balthaser says the loss of Keefer and Pittard are tremendous and has left an aching void in their hearts.

“It has ripped me apart and ripped my mother apart and our whole family. He has a daughter he’s missing who now has a child. He would have been a grandfather now. He’s just missing so much that he should not be missing,” Balthaser said.

Pittard’s death came seven months after his mother, Mindy O’Neill, died while riding her bicycle along that same stretch of U.S. 19. A vehicle hit and killer her when she attempted to cross the highway, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.

After losing the two of them, Fazioli said her family will never be the same again.

“It’s just a devastating force. This has destroyed lives,” Fazioli said.

The families said they would have liked to see Nelson go to trial so a jury could have seen the evidence for themselves and decided.

“Three people sitting in the State Attorney’s Office shouldn’t be the judge and jury,” Fazioli said.

While either side doesn’t agree on much, both the families and Romine said they were unhappy with how the investigation played out.

Romine said he can understand the families’ frustration, but he added that he believes prosecutors came to the right conclusion.

“Had this case been properly investigated from the outset, no charges should have been filed, to begin with,” Romine said.

But while the charges against Nelson may be dropped, the families said they aren’t done with this case. Balthaser said the state “dropped the ball” and said she “is never going to stop fighting” to change what she calls an unjust law.

“People shouldn’t have to go through what we went through. It’s just absolutely heartbreaking. It’s never going to go away, it’s never going to get easier. It’s constantly on your mind. So now my fight is to get the law changed. I’m a determined person, and I don’t give up, and I will be relentless,” Balthaser said.