Cops say Miami Gardens driver hit 109 mph in fatal crash. Since crash: $2,060 of tickets
Miami Gardens police say David Mitchell is a hit-and-run driver who killed Eddie Pascale Aurelien when he smashed into her car at 109 mph on a residential street. Online records say Mitchell owes $2,190.80 in traffic convictions and late fees — $2,061.80 of that from tickets since the fatal February crash.
Mitchell’s charged with vehicular homicide by reckless driving; reckless driving causing serious bodily injury; leaving the scene of an accident involving a death; leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury; and five counts of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage.
There’s a “no driving” order on Mitchell after he posted $66,000 bond Tuesday and was released from Miami-Dade county jail. Mitchell’s driver’s license can’t be suspended. He doesn’t have one. Two of the 20-year-old’s traffic convictions were for illegally driving with only a learner’s permit, indicating the “no driving” order might be as practically ineffective as it is legally obvious.
Also, according to the probable cause affidavit, Mitchell having only a learner’s permit didn’t prevent another Miami Gardens resident from renting him the 2021 Mercedes AMG GLE53 Mitchell allegedly drove in the crash.
The affidavit, by Miami Gardens police Det. Brian O’Malley, said the car’s owner, Wislane Moreau, provided police a rental agreement signed by Mitchell.
Going fast on Valentine’s Day
The affidavit’s crash account says Pascale Aurelien was headed east on Northwest 207th Street just before 2 a.m. on Feb. 14, going home to the apartment she shared with her siter, Edwina Christelle Aurelien, after picking her sister up at Miami International Airport. Mitchell also was going east on Northwest 207th Street, behind Aurelien. Aurelien started to make a left turn into the parking lot for the apartment building at 2051 NW 207th St., where the street has one lane going in each direction and has a 30 mph speed limit.
And, that’s when, the affidavit said, the speeding Mitchell tried to zoom around Aurelien by cutting into the westbound lane and smashed into Aurelien’s car on the driver’s side. The speed, according to the Mercedes’ event data recorder: 109 mph.
Eddie Pascale Aurelien was dead at 32. Christelle Aurelien was thrown from the car and suffered a brain bleed, fractured neck, fractured ribs and facial lacerations.
The Mercedes careened into another car, knocked that car into a fourth car, then rolled over, tossing the passenger through the sunroof. The affidavit says Mitchell got out of the car, raced past Christelle Aurelien, got his passenger, his girlfriend, to her feet and skedaddled with her to his mother’s house, a little more than a quarter mile away.
The affidavit says when Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miami Gardens police answered a 911 call placed by Mitchell’s mother, Mitchell told police he’d been in an accident nearby while grabbing a ride home from the party with his girlfriend. The driver? Didn’t know him. Hadn’t been in the car before.
But, the affidavit says, the license tag and vehicle identification number tracked the car to Moreau. Moreau showed them a Mitchell-signed rental agreement. Mitchell’s social media showed them Mitchell with the car and in the car earlier in the evening. His girlfriend, eight weeks pregnant with twins by Mitchell, told investigators that he’d been driving.
After the crash
Just 17 days after the crash, March 3, Mitchell was caught doing 46 mph in a 30 mph zone in Miami Gardens, without a seat belt, without his learner’s permit and without a licensed driver. He’d get a second helping of tickets on May 10 when he was caught without a seat belt, without a licensed driver, without a license, without proof of insurance and with too much reflective material on his windshield.
Online Miami-Dade traffic records say Mitchell hasn’t paid on any of those tickets or the late fees.
