A Michigan teenager warned her best friend to slow down before a deadly high-speed crash, authorities and reports said.
Ella Wiese, 19, was driving about 100 miles per hour when she tried to drive 18-year-old Nevaeh Downs’ Volkswagen Jetta over a hill in Kent County, Michigan, on Thanksgiving Eve. The car veered off the road, crashed He was thrown into a tree, according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office and media reports.
Vese was also seriously injured in the incident.
“It’s the kids who are doing the stupid things,” Kent County Attorney Christopher R. Becker told the Post. “And it ended in tragedy.”
Prosecutors said a recording from the scene showed Downs warning Veche to slow down because of an oncoming vehicle. “That probably distracted her,” Becker added.
Downs, a recent high school graduate, was “thoughtful, strong and caring,” one person said. Online obituary and GoFundMe page to establish a scholarship fund in her name at Grand Rapids Community College, where she was a student.
Becker said Veche was charged with reckless driving causing death, a felony, but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving causing death. She is scheduled to be sentenced in June and could face up to a year in prison if she is found guilty.
“The victim’s family did not want us to proceed,” Becker said.
Downs said her family considered Wies “like a daughter to us.” Still, prosecutors said the office needs to “hold her accountable in some way.”
As part of the plea agreement, Veche lost his license for one year.
Becker said the hill they were about to jump from is the site of many deaths in recent years.
Mr. Vese’s attorney could not immediately be reached.
