Teen charged in fatal April crash
Report: He left friend dead or dying in vehicle as he went to seek help.
WEST PALM BEACH — A 17-yearold Royal Palm Beach High School senior left his friend either dead or dying in a crashed BMW while he went home for help during the early hours of April 15, authorities said in reports posted as he was arrested for vehicular homicide.
Cedric Watson of Royal Palm Beach is charged in the death of Jacqueline Torres, his passenger, VIDEO ONLINE
See video of Cedric Watson’s bond hearing at video. PalmBeachPost.com.
in a crash on Belvedere Road near the South Florida Fairgrounds in suburban West Palm Beach. Watson will turn 18 next month.
Torres, 18, also of Royal Palm Beach, “was an exciting, adventurous, happy person,” the girl’s brother, Pablo Torres, said the day after the crash, translating for his mother. “And a very beautiful woman.”
A report released Thursday says Watson had only a learner’s permit, wasn’t supposed to be driving the car and was traveling at between 86 and 89 mph when he crashed.
“After the collision occurred Watson left the scene on foot in an attempt to get help,” the report said.
It said he told investigators he rode home on a bike, and investigators saw the bike but don’t know how he got it.
When he got home, he woke his sister to say he’d been in a crash in which he had hit a pole. He said he left his friend there with a broken leg.
The sister brought him back to the crash site, about 5 miles from their home, according to the report.
The report said Watson violated his learner’s permit, which requires someone who’s at least 21 years old to be in the front seat.
The report does not say who owned the car.
Watson was booked Wednesday afternoon at the Palm Beach County Jail, charged with vehicular homicide and driving without a license in a crash that resulted either in death or serious injury, according to jail records.
On Thursday at the jail, Circuit Judge Dina Keever-Agrama set Watson’s bail at $15,000, along with house arrest and an ankle monitor after he posts bail. He also can neither drive nor have contact with Torres’ family.
Mary Ann Duggan, the assistant state attorney at the hearing, asked for $75,000 bail and in-house arrest. But Elizabeth Pohm, Watson’s public defender, told the judge that a high bond for the student would be tantamount to no bond.
She said Watson has “no history at all. No arrests. No nothing. He’s not a flight risk. This happened many months ago, and they arrested him at his home.”
Watson’s father, Thomas, declined to comment when reached Thursday via text.
According to Palm Beach County sheriff’s crash and arrest reports, Watson was speeding in the 2005 BMW at about 4 a.m. when he came across pavement wet from sprinklers.
He lost control in a puddle and the car began to spin, then went up on the center median and struck three trees, throwing both him and Torres out of the vehicle.
Torres was pronounced dead at the scene. Watson was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Reports don’t say if investigators believed alcohol was involved or whether Torres and Watson were wearing seat belts.
The Palm Beach County School District said in April that Torres attended a charter school but provided no further details.
Torres, known as “Jackie,” had been looking at colleges and was working at a shop at the Mall at Wellington Green, her brother Pablo said.
He said the crash took place on prom night, but his sister had opted not to go, instead heading out for the evening with Watson, whom he described as a close friend but not her boyfriend.
Torres is survived by her parents, two brothers and a sister.
Both the sheriff ’s office and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office declined Thursday to provide the full investigative report, saying that, because it led to criminal charges, it’s not public until prosecutors and defense lawyers share it during “discovery” further along in the court process.