An accused drunk driver out celebrating his birthday is now charged with killing a 19-year-old college student in Miami Beach — striking her parked Jeep so hard at 100 mph that she flew into the air.
When cops caught up with 24-year-old Nicholas Robinson he was so boozed up during the deadly Friday morning wreck that he was “completely unaware” of what he had done, according to a Miami Beach police report reviewed by WPLG-TV News.
“Why are you stopping me?” he allegedly told police. “It’s my birthday, and did you get the other car?”
Police said the crash killed Gabriela Flores, a Florida International University student from El Salvador, who was pronounced dead near her mangled Jeep, the outlet said.
Robinson was initially charged with drunk driving and reckless driving — but the charges were upgraded to vehicular manslaughter during a court appearance on Tuesday.
“We’re here because he’s driving at a high rate of speed, I guess shortly after midnight on February 21st and smashes into a car going west on Macarthur Causeway,” Miami-Dade County Judge Mindy Glazer said, WPLG reported. “They say he was driving 100 miles per hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone, he had slurred speech, odor of alcoholic beverage.
“In fact, he didn’t even know he hit another car,” the judge said. “He said ‘did you get the other car?’ He struck the vehicle, the victim was ejected and he said he’s out celebrating his birthday. So I guess it was his birthday and the victim’s death day.”
Court records show Robinson is being held on $100,000 bail at the Miami-Dade jail.
