The cops stopped chasing him. So why did he still go 100 mph with his kids in the car?
A Sebastian man drove a shoplifting incident at 100 mph into a 13-count crash-and-run that endangered his young, injured the old and returned him to a bed behind bars.
That’s according to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office arrest report for 31-year-old Kevine Clarke, a man with a lot of criminal history and no driver’s license.
Clarke is most recently of Palm Bay, but he spent 16 months in 2018 and 2019 as a Florida Department of Corrections resident, courtesy of theft, heroin and gun convictions. Upon his December release, he started two years of probation. So, he’s got a potential probation violation hold keeping him from freedom, aside from the $95,000 bond on these new charges.
Retail theft earned Clarke his first seven months in prison, and the report says Saturday’s incident started as theft. Clarke’s 12-year-old daughter told Indian River County deputies that Clarke “stole from the store and the police were behind us.”
That would be Sebastian police, who gave up the chase eventually. Indian River deputies shut down major intersections as Clarke’s Chevrolet Malibu zoomed down 66th Avenue into unincorporated Vero Beach.
Passenger Jasmine Giles saw the speedometer hit 100 mph. A deputy sergeant clocked Clarke at 110 mph From the seat behind Clarke in the Malibu, his 12-year-old daughter said she saw the speedometer hit 120 mph. Giles, the girl and Clarke’s 7-year-old son told deputies they begged Clarke to stop, but that he ignored them.
The report says Clarke was stopped by an impossible-to-ignore law of physics — two pieces of matter can’t occupy the same place at the same time. At 26th Street, the southbound Clarke swung into a left turn and crashed into a northbound car driven by a 69-year-old woman with a 71-year-old man in the passenger seat.
The report said that a Sunday check on the woman found her with bruising, deep tissue damage, a tough time moving her neck and overall body pain. Her passenger couldn’t start to stand up without pain. No bones were broken on them, or on Clarke’s 12-year-old who complained of shoulder pain.
After the crash, Clarke high-tailed it to the swale line near Indian River Mall. When found there, he ran again. The report doesn’t detail where, only that “chemical agents were used to drive the suspect out and he was secured without further incident.”
Clarke has had seven suspensions of his driver’s license since 2012 and two convictions of driving on a suspended license.
So, four counts of driving on a suspended license were added to one count of driving without a license, causing serious bodily injury; two counts of felony child abuse; two counts of reckless driving; one count of felony fleeing and eluding; leaving the scene of an accident; aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and theft.
