Suspect arrested years after crash

A man accused of driving 95 mph in a 35-mph zone before crashing into another car was arrested nearly five years after the fatal collision.

The arrest report does not say why it took so long to bring John Robert Whelden, 25, of Coral Springs into custody.

The crash that killed Mohammad Uddin, 49, happened in Pompano Beach on Sept. 6, 2013.

The original detective on the case retired, Broward Sheriff ’s spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said in an email. The former detective recalled filing the case, but the agency couldn't find a record of it, she said.

The night of the crash, Whelden was speeding along East Atlantic Boulevard around midnight when his 2011 Dodge Challenger crashed into a 2010 Toyota Corolla driven by Uddin, of Pompano Beach, documents and officials said.

Uddin died a half hour later from injuries received in the crash; Whelden and his passenger survived, an arrest report said.

Deputies presented the case to the Broward state attorney’s office on Feb. 23, 2018, and a prosecutor filed a charge of vehicular homicide against Whelden on April 30, a spokeswoman for the state attorney’s office said Monday.

Wheldon was arrested Sunday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as he was about to travel to Los Cabos, Mexico, for vacation.

During a hearing Monday, Broward County Judge Florence Taylor Barner set a $250,000 bond and also ordered Whelden not to drive, use intoxicants or have contact with Uddin’s family.

Whelden’s lawyer, Blanca Perper Greenstein, described him as a charitable, “upstanding member of the community” who has 23 agents working for him. She also said he was not a flight risk.

She later said Whelden’s vacation trip had been an award from his company, USHEALTH Advisors, “for being an exemplary sales person.”

If Whelden does get out on bond, he will have to submit to electronic monitoring.