Two pedestrians killed by white Porsche~

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by speeder

Looks like a normal 997 turbo to me. Ugly(?)

Calm down! I'm all for a 997 turbo. The front bumper was throwing me off, but I figured out it's from TechArt. Also some sort of non-stock wheels.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Neilk

How hard would it really be to trace the owner back to the scene. Can't you retroactively get the location of someone with a cellphone from the telephone company? If so, it should be easy to figure out where the owner was.

Poor people.

I don't think that's as easy or common as the movies and TV make it seem, but I could be wrong.

[nocarrier]

The problem may be is that there is no "wheel witness."

Proving who the owner of the car is no problem. Proving who was driving the car is a whole different story.

I'm sure the driver/owner has probably already gotten legal advice and won't be giving any incriminating statements to the police any time soon.

It's a very sad thing but it does happen much more than one would actually think.

They could however check cell phone records and see if the owner made or received any calls near the time of the incident.

[Nine17]

Originally Posted by nocarrier

The problem may be is that there is no "wheel witness."

You're right about the cell phone -- towers can triangulate very accurately. I suspect that the drivers were chattering up a storm before (and possibly during) their little "race." Then, despite all the myths on TV CSI shows, there ARE some things that can be done with DNA evidence. If the Ft. Lauderdale cops were smart, they swabbed the steering wheel, shifter, interior door pulls, etc. If "Dieter" was driving instead of the owner, his DNA ought to be there. This is how they boxed Mr. Gizmondo into the Malibu Enzo. It took a few weeks to sort out the evidence, but he's in the slammer now.

More importantly, there needs to be indemnification to the families. One of the victims, Craig Elford, had a wife and two daughters, one 3 years old and one 10 weeks old. They will never know the love and support of their dad.

[t951]

If the owner was involved then there is a good chance he will have a pricey attorney. (I am basing this on the fact that a 997 Turbo is expensive, and then adding a TechArt kit is not cheap either).

Sad to say, but in the US justice is based on the money you spend. A poor kid in a Civic has no chance, a rich Dr. driving a 150k car does.

I am sure he has an attorney that is already shoring up a defense and creating a situation to simply create reasonable doubt.

I would wager against justice being delivered.

[sammyg2]

If this happened in San Francisco I know who my number one suspect would be. ...

[Nine17]

Originally Posted by t951

I am sure he has an attorney that is already shoring up a defense and creating a situation to simply create reasonable doubt.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees legal counsel. We won't know what the evidence is for weeks -- maybe months. Mr. Gizmondo got a bloody nose from the airbag in his Enzo and there was nothing that his high-priced suits could do about it. Rich crooks who lawyer-up get convicted in this country every day.

And remember -- "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" is the standard of evidence in a CRIMINAL case. The CIVIL standard is generally "preponderance of the evidence." OJ managed to bamboozle a criminal jury in downtown L.A. and stay out of prison but he lost the civil case and spent the rest of his free days chasing money to make up for what he was having to pay the Goldmans. That eventually led to his karma catching up to him. I'd rather see this clown stripped of every penny of his assets and working for the rest of his life as the personal slave of Craig Elford's children.

BTW, Vic Elford's sons Martyn and Paul and are a little older than Craig. I had to check, because Vic and his wife Anita live in Florida...

[t951]

Nine17,

I agree with you on the criminal versus civil standards. I would imagine a soft, wealthy guy would rather be broke, and not in prison, than in prison. I also would love to see this jerk penniless and destitute.

I don't think that a person with means will serve jail time, which is what I meant. I agree with you in that he will most likely lose civilly. My point was simply, the odds are in his favor.

t.

[speeder]

I have a different take on it. The registered owner would have to come up with some very credible evidence that someone else was driving his car in order to avoid being charged with double homicide. If he was charged, (and he was in fact guilty), he would cop a plea to avoid doing two life sentences in a South Florida state prison. He would still do significant time, but see the light of day in a few years.

"Someone else was driving my car" doesn't go far in a double-murder. It's the equivilent of "I didn't do it", unless you have an air-tight alibi. Guys with 997 turbos generally do not just throw the keys down on the table at a drunken party and say, "who wants to drive my car?"

[Gogar]

I hope you guys haven't ruled out the other likely premise:

Young kid with rich Porsche-owning dad takes dad's car out for a joyride.

[t951]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/fort_lauderdale/sfl-flbfatal0217sbfeb17,0,3773742.story

They identified the owner....

Police on Monday said they know who owns the white Porsche that fatally struck two pedestrians on State Road A1A last week.

But whether the Porsche's owner was the driver is still under investigation.

"I can't tell you if we suspect him or not," said police spokeswoman Yvette Martinez. She cited the open case.

The speeding sports car, perhaps competing in an illegal street race, jumped a curb on Fort Lauderdale beach early Friday and killed British visitors Craig Lewis Elford, 39, and Kenneth Watkinson, 48.



Video
Related links
Police hunt for Porsche driver responsible for 2 deaths
Fort Lauderdale investigate hit-run Video
Pedestrians killed in Fort Lauderdale Photo
On the scene: Two pedestrians killed Photos
Pedestrians killed in traffic crashes
Florida Broward Palm
2007 530 65 33
2006 546 50 39
2005 576 41 36
2004 504 38 28
2003 509 43 44
2002 484 36 25
2001 510 42 35
2000 506 41 32
1999 501 49 29
1998 548 57 31

SOURCE: Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Where pedestrians were hit and where Porsche was found Graphic
Map of the scene: Fort Lauderdale hit-and-run Map data ©2009 Tele Atlas - Terms of UseView Detailed VersionReset Map
Racing the track: Safer than street racing Multimedia
South Florida Crime and Safety: News, tips and more
Local mug shots: Palm Beach County police booking blotter
Homicides: Search homicides in Broward and Palm Beach counties
Background checks on people and property
How to keep yourself safe
Search: South Florida officers killed in the line of duty The hit-and-run incident occurred about 2:30 a.m. as the sports cars roared down State Road A1A, also known in that stretch of road as Seabreeze Boulevard.

"They were going really fast," said Abdias Laloi, 23, a cashier at a nearby 7-Eleven store. "They were going so fast I couldn't even see what kind of cars they were, just two white cars."

A security guard at the hotel found the men's bodies in a grassy area by the sidewalk in front of the hotel, Martinez said.

Police were reviewing surveillance footage retrieved from the hotel, she said.

No arrests have yet been made.

Police ask anyone with information to call 954-828-5460 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477).

[t951]

More info:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/chi-porsche_fatalitiesfeb25,0,660113.story?page=1

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Jail halts playboy's life in the fast lane

Illinois drug case and a fatal crash in Florida put pressure on Ryan LeVin who lived well and played hard

By Stacy St. Clair and Jon Burstein

Tribune Newspapers

February 25, 2009


Ryan LeVin basked in the South Florida lifestyle.

The scion of a wealthy Chicago-area family, he lived in an oceanfront condo owned by his parents and drove around Ft. Lauderdale in a Porsche 911 Turbo valued at more than $120,000. No longer employed by his parents' jewelry company, his main responsibility was tending to their two properties in an exclusive seaside neighborhood.

His privileged lifestyle ended abruptly this week when LeVin, 34, landed in Cook County Jail for a probation violation stemming from a 2006 car chase in Chicago.

In Florida, authorities continued Tuesday to investigate his ties to a hit-and-run crash that killed two British tourists.

The fatal crash has grabbed international headlines, with London tabloids portraying LeVin of Hoffman Estates as the "millionaire playboy" whose Porsche recklessly plowed into Kenneth Watkinson, 48, and Craig Elford, 39, as they walked back to their Ft. Lauderdale hotel Feb. 13.

The crash left five children fatherless and sparked outrage in England and South Florida, where journalists and Internet sleuths launched their own investigations. Even as LeVin sat behind bars Tuesday, new details emerged about drug use and run-ins with the law.

Ft. Lauderdale police say LeVin owned the white Porsche involved in the crash, but they have not called him a suspect. No charges have been filed in the case.

LeVin has said he was not driving the sports car when the crash occurred. Employees at a trendy Ft. Lauderdale restaurant confirmed he had been in the establishment that evening and left by himself in the Porsche. About an hour before the crash, a valet saw LeVin's sports car speeding up and down Las Olas Boulevard, one of the city's main drags, according to the restaurant's general manager.

On Tuesday, Ft. Lauderdale police released a recording of the 911 call placed shortly after the hit-and-run.

When the dispatcher asks if the car is still there, the caller calmly tells her "no."

"I just see a headlight, and there are, like, two gentlemen laying in the bush and they're all over the place," she says. "They look really hurt."

LeVin's Florida lawyer cautioned this week against a rush to judgment, saying the media had distorted the situation.

For LeVin, however, the case casts a harsh light on his lavish lifestyle. Raised as one of eight children in his parents' Barrington mansion—a Tudor-style home with its own ballroom and an enormous closet reserved specifically for his mother's theatrical evening gowns—he developed an appreciation for fast cars and even faster living, public records show.

His parents, Arthur and Shirley, made millions from Jewels by Park Lane, a direct-sales juggernaut that relies on at-home parties to sell its jewelry. The couple also own several harness racing horses and ranks among the sport's winningest owners.

The LeVins issued a statement last week expressing sympathy for the crash's victims and said they would handle the situation privately as a family. Ryan LeVin does not work for the company, according to the release.

He referred to himself as the company's vice president of national sales in court documents from 2007. In those same records, he details a substance abuse problem he says began with casual cocaine use when he was 21 and escalated following a bitter divorce in 2004.

Court documents connected to his divorce paint a darker picture of his drug addiction. His then-wife filed a restraining order against him in May 2003, accusing him of being a heroin addict who hid methadone in their car so she wouldn't find it. She accused LeVin of abusing Ativan, Valium, marijuana and sleeping pills.

Authorities were called to the couple's Texas home in April 2003 for a domestic disturbance, according to police records. LeVin's wife, who was pregnant, told police he had thrown her down on the couch and kneed her in the abdomen.

She did not press charges but filed for divorce three weeks later while LeVin was in Chicago. The judge granted a restraining order, instructing LeVin to stay away from his wife and stepson.

The couple, only married for three months before separating, officially divorced in 2004. Their daughter, now 5, lives with her mother in suburban Houston.

LeVin has racked up more than 50 traffic violations in Cook County since 1992, according to court records.

After a 2004 conviction in Lake County for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, he got a year of probation and was ordered to substance abuse class.

LeVin was ordered to attend drug treatment a second time following a 2006 incident in which he ran over a police officer and instigated a high-speed chase on the Kennedy Expressway. Authorities found a small bag of cocaine in the car.

In exchange for a lighter sentence, LeVin pleaded guilty to felony aggravated fleeing in November 2007 and was sentenced to 30 months of probation and mandatory substance abuse counseling.

LeVin was remanded Monday to Cook County jail for failing to complete drug treatment. The judge ordered him held without bail.

LeVin's Schaumburg lawyer, Michael Norris, contends his client underwent substance abuse counseling in Florida, but LeVin objected to the counselor's demand he stop taking the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

Though his parents have attended previous court appearances with him, they did not accompany him to the county courthouse in Skokie.

Norris said the LeVins would have been there if they knew he was going to be locked up.

LeVin, who appeared surprised by his incarceration, will return to court Thursday to discuss whether he's eligible for a special substance abuse program at the jail.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-floridadeaths-ill,0,1375324.story


Hope this dude rots in jail....for life..

[m21sniper]

So basically he's a real life version of Tony Soprano's kid.

Spoiled douche.

[TerryH]

In 2006, he attempted to murder a police officer, resulting in a high speed chase, while in possession of cocaine and received zero jail time.

The judge in that case should be impeached. If this loser was behind bars where he belonged, those two Brits would be alive.

[Nine17]

Clearly the family was financing and enabling this low-life P.O.S. They need to be held accountable for facilitating his homicidal lifestyle. Yes, he needs to be quarantined in a penitentiary so that he doesn't kill any of the rest of us, but first and foremost the Elford chldren need to be taken care of from here on out as lavishly as he evidently was.

[RWebb]

Ah, Christ!

Why can't we convince these morons to drive Fcars or Corvettes or somethin' ....

[m21sniper]

I wonder if the Parents are adopting?