Law&Crime Sidebar - Instagram Model High on 'Pink Cocaine' Killed Two People: Court Docs

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Maecee Marie Lathers, 24, allegedly told officers at the scene of a three-car crash in Miami that she was under the influence of a party drug known as “tusi” or “pink cocaine.” Lathers allegedly ran a red light and slammed into a Range Rover, causing a chain reaction crash that killed two people and injured two others. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes what the judge had to say during Lathers’ bail hearing with attorney Bob Hille.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. She got into this horrible accident and then she walked away and it appeared that she was under the influence of drugs at the time she was driving the car without a license killing two people. An Instagram model appears in court to find out if she'll be granted a bond after a horrific chain reaction car crash out in Miami. We're detailing the felony charges she currently faces and what she could face with trial attorney Bob Hillup. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Macy Marie Lathers is probably used to being in the spotlight. A 24-year-old artist and model has thousands of followers on Instagram, but one of her latest. photos, it's missing the makeup, it's missing the filters, missing the likes. You know why? Because it's her mug shop. Yeah, Miami police say Lathers was speeding down a stretch of road two weekends ago just after 645 a.m. and went right through a red light and the Mercedes bends that she was driving ended up slamming into a range rover that was being driven by a man in his 20s. And then both vehicles ended up crashing with a Suzuki carrying three people killing both the driver and one of the passengers.

Lathers and the Range Rover driver, they were also injured, according to her arrest report. But Lathers still reportedly tried to leave the scene of the accident. But you know what happened? Bystanders actually stopped her and brought her back. Hey, so I want to thank Upside for sponsoring this episode of Sidebar. So UpSight is a free app that gets you cashback on daily essentials like gas and grocery. So when I pump my gas, if I use Upside, I can get cash back when I'm.

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driving without a license and causing death of the driver and the backseat passenger of the Suzuki. Two counts of driving without a license and causing serious injury for the Suzuki's other passenger and the driver of the range rover. Two counts of leaving the scene of a crash that caused death and two counts of leaving the scene of a crash that caused serious injuries. However, there is a chance that her charges could be upgraded. And before we even get into her latest appearance in court and what happened, I want to bring in trial attorney Bob Hilla, who's back here on sidebar. Bob, good to see you.

Thanks so much for coming on. How tough do you think it is to prosecute these kinds of cases? On one hand, it seems pretty straightforward, but is it? Well, I think a lot's going to depend on the toxicology report kind of bad. Right. Because, again, a lot of the issue, raised, which probably going to be part of her defense, was that she was on this cocaine drug and, you know, that she really didn't have full use of her faculties.

Yeah. But I think this is going to be a tough case for the defense. I mean, I think the simpler case is for the state to prove, the easier it is for the jury to convict, I think. You know, again, there's no question. and she's the one that caused the deaths and the injuries, there's no question that she ran the red light. I mean, there may be some challenges to that,

but all the witnesses are going to be lined up against her on it. And probably surveillance footage, camera footage. I'll tell you what, hold that thought, hold that thought, because I want to get into the charges that she could be facing and also that drug that you mentioned too. But one of the things I saw is, so her Instagram account has a little more than 11,000 followers posing, in bikinis, very suggestive photos, her bio reads, money on my brain, dope in real

life, because this is getting a lot of attention because of her social media following, does that come into evidence at all? Is that relevant at all, her Instagram? I don't know that those two comments on her Instagram site. And all the photos and everything. It makes great press. I don't know that it's going to make necessary evidence or essential evidence in the trial. I mean, the real things they're going to focus on is that she should have been behind the wheel in the first place because she was suspended.

Right. So that's going to lay down a basis for, you know, was that reckless to be there in the first place? Then taking the drug, you know, again, the toxicology report's going to have to show that because in Florida, if it's a DUI, that's a second-degree felony with a 15-year. You're talking about DUI manslaughter, right? Right. Vehicular homicide with DUI. Because prosecutors, and this is what I wanted to get in it, they have indicated they may, in fact, charge her with DUI manslaughter. It depends upon the results of the toxicology report.

Now, my understanding is that is a second-degree felony that carries 15 years in prison. But before we came on, you said it could be even more. Right, because it's the leaving the scene issue that bumps both the reckless vehicular homicide and the DUI homicides. up from a second degree with a 15-year max to a 30-year path. So she's facing some serious charges here. I got to believe with the evidence they have just from the aftermath of the accident and what happened and the witnesses there that held her that they're going to upgrade those charges.

They're just waiting for the toxicology reports to come back from when she was treated at the hospital. And by the way, it's recklessness and negligence? I mean, what were two different standards? Well, yeah, I mean, I think, and I didn't check this out. to see whether if it's negligence, obviously, it would be some sort of a lower exposure. But in this case, I don't think there's any question,

but it being reckless, I mean, flying through a red light. Well, what she would have to say, I flew through the red light, but it wasn't my fault. It was the other driver who came out of nowhere or something, right? This can't be the first case where somebody speeds or goes through red light, and yet they're trying to argue they weren't responsible for a car crash. Well, they're likely going to argue that. I mean, what else can they argue, really, on that they're going to say that,

Well. I wasn't, I wasn't, yeah, I was negligent. I didn't see the light. But how could she say she ran the red light? Because apparently she gave that statement. How could she even say she was on these drugs unless she knew that she was on those? Let's talk about that. Because this is where I think it gets complicated. What was allegedly in her system? And could that help her defense in a way? I'll explain why. So Lathers appeared in court on Friday for a bond hearing and she was wearing a green prison vest. Again, a very different look than what she's used to. And she had a private attorney who appeared via Zoom. So the judge started out by releasing the public defender's office from needing to represent her. And then the judge read from Lather's arrest report. Before we even get into the drugs and everything, let's listen a little bit to this. After the crash, there's video surveillance of her, exiting the vehicle and walking northbound away from the crash, never rendering aid or calling 911 to assist those who were injured in the crash. Unknown bystanders grabbed a defendant and took her back to the scene of the crash and helped her until the police arrived.

So basically the cars all landed in different locations. And when the police arrived, they saw that she was under the influence. I guess they believed. Police were assisting her. They asked her question. She advised she was under the influence of 2C, a known party drug, and that she was from the future and had a crystal ball. and she was placed in the recovery physician until fire rescue arrived because she was vomiting.

And so, victim one had to be extracted from the vehicle three and was transported to the hospital rider trauma and in critical condition and was later dispronounced deceased due to his injuries. Victim two was removed from vehicle three and transported to Jackson with facial and arm lacerations. vehicle victim three was pronounced deceased on the scene by the fire rescue. Victim four was transported to JMH in stable condition. So there's two people that died and two that were injured. The vehicle was registered to her,

but she doesn't have a Florida's driver's license And a further search revealed that under her date of birth and name, she has a Florida driver's license and it was suspended indefinitely January 16th of 2024. So that's what this piece is about. Okay. So other than just how horrific that whole scene was, as we talked about, the license had been suspended indefinitely, meaning she wasn't allowed to be driving period. But now I want to talk about what you just heard there, 2C, right?

2C, this drug. It's been called pink cocaine, and according to an NYU medical school report published in 2023, it's usually a combination of a lot of different drugs, ketamine, ecstasy, cocaine, meth, opioids, other psychoactives. And researchers say it's pink colors really just for looks, aesthetics. According to the Florida Poison Control Center, 2C can cause things like racing heart rate, increased blood pressure, stroke, seizures. It's been popular in Europe and Latin America for a while now, but it's a big.

part of the party scene in Miami now. This is according to police. And last summer, it apparently was the number one narcotic customs and border protection officers were finding when they busted international passengers. In fact, if you've been following us here on sidebar, you may say, why does that sound so familiar, that idea of pink cocaine? Well, it was one of the drugs that Sean P. Diddy Combs is accused of having on hand at parties and events. He's facing multiple lawsuits right now, accusing him of everything from drug and human trafficking to rape and physical assault and in a lawsuit filed by Combs' ex-girlfriend, young Miami, she accuses Combs of having her transport to see for him on private planes.

So Bob, here's the thing, right? Voluntary intoxication, not a defense, right? If you ingest something, it affects your capabilities, your awareness, you're not going to be able to argue that. I say that, but I always have to think to myself now. Look at the Bryn Specher case. I don't know if you're familiar of this one. So she was high on marijuana when she stabbed this young man a hundred and eight times, killed him, brutally killed him, found guilty by a jury of manslaughter, but the judge refused to sentence her to prison.

There was an argument that she had a marijuana-induced psychosis, felt that prison time was no longer warranted. After that case, I feel like it sets the stage differently. If you're taking a narcotic and these were not the reactions that you were predicting, I mean, you heard some of the things that she was allegedly saying on the scene. What do you think? The voluntary intoxication is always kind of an interesting issue because part of that here is that you know you're of sane mind and you have your voluntary decision-making process intact when you take this drug, or alcohol, and you know that as a result of that, you know, it's going to impair your ability to exercise rational judgment.

In some cases, it may be the reason why you're taking it, and then you're going to go out and do something. So the expectation is that if it's foreseeable or it's something within the realm of, you know, what you should be charged with not doing when you're taking that drug. Now, I guess there's an argument and maybe that judge looked at that, that at some point, does the consequence, consequences of it or does it trigger with another event unbeknownst, you know, let's say there's an underlying psychosis that the person is not aware of, that the interaction of the two now causes that person to behave in a way that really goes beyond this whole theory of voluntary intoxication.

I mean, it was just for me when she's like, I'm from the future and I had a crystal ball, I was like these kind of outrageous claims. Now, I'm sure maybe she could say, yes, I took the drug, I had no intention of going behind the wheel. I don't even know how I got the car keys, they're her car, but I don't even know. I think that could be a stretch. I think it could be a stretch. But I do want to ask your opinion about this.

So during the hearing, the Miami-Dade County prosecutor laid out all the reasons why they were requesting a $500,000 bomb. Let's check this out. And it looks like based upon the results of the toxicology, we're likely going to charge her with DUI manslaughter. It does appear that she was under the influence of controlled substances. At the time of the incident, based upon her statements, her vomiting, I believe she would be a potential flight risk in that these are extraordinarily serious charges. And we may be filing charges that include minimum mandatories for them. Your office hasn't filed a motion for pre-frewal detention as of today's date.

In this case has been here for a couple of days since August 10th when she was arrested. So I think if we file DUI manslaughter, we have to, we can't file it until we get the results, right? We may be able to file that motion. But she got into this horrible accident and then she walked away and it appeared that she was under the influence of drugs. At the time she was driving the car without a license killing two people, the state's requesting a $500,000, bond plus house arrest, as well as a no drive order. Now, Lather's attorney wasn't too happy with the bond that the state suggested. Take a look at this.

Your Honor, if I may. Yes, please. Your Honor, I think a half a million dollar bond is unreasonable and is telling them out to no bond. Your Honor, if the state is requesting house arrest as a condition, then I think that there are other parameters that would be justifiable to lower that bond. If she's going to be placed on house arrest, perhaps the court can place her on an ankle monitor or something of that nature. But I think a half a million dollar bond is unreasonable. She doesn't pose a danger to the community.

She's a college graduate. She's been in the state of Florida, Your Honor, for almost two years. So I don't think that there's anything to suggest that she's a flight risk. And again, Your Honor, if they're asking for house arrest as a condition, then I don't see why the bond. should be a half a million dollars. And so what did the judge do? The judge ended up assigning a bond to each charge, which added up to $140,000. Because I believe in increased bonds is warranted.

She's in absolute danger of the community based on killing to her driving, which you shouldn't have been in a car. And she's clearly impaired based on her statements. And if it wasn't for the citizens or witnesses nearby who stopped her, she would have completely fled. So that's my ruling. Any other issues you can address with the division judge who's Judge Pooler? Good day.

Thank you, Mr. Court of Bill Walser. Thank you, Your Honor. Now, Lathers, she didn't speak during the hearing except to respond to the court when the judge told her she can't get behind the wheel. You are not allowed to drive a motor vehicle while this case is pending. Do you understand, ma'am? Okay. And Lathers is due back in court for her next hearing on September 3rd. Bob, was that the right decision?

Well, I think it's a decision that's probably not going to be reversed. I mean, I think the judge had a sound basis for what she did. I think she tried to weigh all the factors, and she came to, you know, I think a reasonable conclusion on that with respect to the bail. You know, she is a danger to the community, and the problem was that she's already had a prohibition from being behind a wheel, and she disregarded the law in that respect. Now she's going to be facing some pretty significant. charges. And in many states, I'm not sure Florida's one, you don't even necessarily need

a toxicology report to prove under the influence. I mean, it's, you know, maybe a fact question for the jury, and there may be more play with the defense. But, you know, the observations of the officers at the time and what she was saying will play into that. I, even though we kind of explored the idea of defense is it feels like an open and shut case. It's a tragedy what happened. And it was senseless. I would imagine she has to be considering seriously a plea deal, right, instead of taking this trial? If that's the case, what would a plea deal even look like? Well, she has to.

I mean, the interesting thing here is that leaving the scene elevates everything and that kind of doubles her criminal exposure. But I think where under the influence can help her is when you heard the description by the judge about from the police record, you know, you could argue that she didn't know where she was. She was just in a horrific accident. Obie she caused it, but she's disoriented, she's under the influence.

Her walking there was not necessarily leaving the scene of the accident. She was just wandering at that point because if they were able to get her right away, if she wasn't resisting, you know, is that really leaving the scene of the accident? So that would be something that you can bargain with on that. But the other factors in there, it's really going to be in terms of what are the aggravating and mitigating factors here. There are a couple of aggravating factors we just talked about. Mitigating factors might be things in her background, you know,

but it's so early in the case. We don't even know that yet. Sad case, senseless killings really shouldn't have happened. Unfortunately, it happens way too often. But it's going to be interesting to see which way this plays out. Bob Hillock, good seeing you, my friend. Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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