Port Orange man, 19, accused of filming crash, leaving scene charged with vehicular homicide
A Port Orange man was charged in the death of a woman he was racing with in December, a crash police said he turned around to record with his cellphone instead of calling 911.
Port Orange police said data extracted from a cellphone they seized from Braden Lafferty, 19, showed on Snapchat that he was driving an Infiniti playing music and filming himself; he then panned the phone's camera out of the driver's side window and recorded the vehicle crash scene in front of the Port Orange Post Office.
Lafferty was arrested Tuesday and charged with vehicular homicide, racing on a highway and leaving the scene of a crash with death. Lafferty was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail later that day after posting $51,000 bail, jail records show.
Port Orange police said the wreck occurred Dec. 23 at 1:15 a.m. on Dunlawton Avenue near the intersection of Spruce Creek Road.
Kayla Lawrence, 32, was killed when the Cadillac she was driving ran off the road, went airborne at a minimum speed of 85.77 mph and wrapped around a concrete power pole, a Port Orange police traffic homicide report stated.
The impact was so hard that the front wheels broke off the Cadillac, and the engine separated from the transmission, investigators said.
Lafferty, who was racing in his Infiniti, sped away from the scene of the wreck, then made a U-turn, returned to the scene and filmed the crash with his iPhone. He then went to his home less than a mile away, and inspected his car to see if it was damaged, the crash report said.
Engaged in a vehicular race on Dunlawton
Using video surveillance recordings from nearby businesses, Lafferty's cellphone and an elementary school, along with witness statements and digital photos, Port Orange police traffic homicide investigators determined the circumstances of the crash, the traffic homicide report detailed.
Just before the crash, police saw Lafferty and Lawrence stopped at a railroad crossing waiting for a train to go by. As soon as the track was clear and the railroad crossing arms raised, they engaged in "a vehicular race," police wrote in their report.
One surveillance camera captured Lawrence speeding by at 81.97 mph, and Lafferty was traveling at 79.27 mph, about half a vehicle length behind Lawrence, police said. The speed limit on that part of Dunlawton Avenue is 45 mph.
The surveillance video recording also showed Lafferty overtaking Lawrence as they approached the intersection of Spruce Creek Road.
As the vehicles passed the intersection with Spruce Creek Road, Lawrence lost control and ran off the road, the crash report shows.
In a conversation with his mother, Lafferty claimed that Lawrence did not drive forward once the train passed, so he honked his horn at her. Lawrence then lowered her window and began flailing her arms around, Lafferty told his mother, according to the report.
Lafferty claimed it was a road rage incident in which Lawrence tried to run him off the road, police noted in their report.
Witnesses told police the cars did not make contact and each was speeding in their own lane, the report stated.
Police: After crash, Lafferty drove to NSB for a drug deal
Recording extracted from Lafferty's cellphone also showed that after the crash, he drove to New Smyrna Beach to conduct a drug transaction, police said.
A handgun was also found in the unregistered Infiniti that Lafferty was driving. The car also had a tag, which belonged to a Nissan truck, attached to it, investigators said.
"He was operating an uninsured and unregistered motor vehicle while engaging in the sale of narcotics with a handgun wedged between the driver seat and center console," investigators wrote in the conclusion of their investigation.
Lafferty actively engaged in a race with Lawrence, police said.
"He was driving around filming himself, seeking a racing competitor," the report concluded.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man accused of filming crash charged with vehicular homicide
