Slain man’s father killed, mother injured in crash
WELLINGTON — On Tuesday, nearly a year after Matthew Makarits was shot dead in a Greenacres park, his father was killed and his mother seriously injured when their SUV crashed east of Wellington.
Robert Alexander Makarits, 47, lost control of the family’s 2000 Ford Explorer shortly after 7 p.m. on Lake Worth Road near Lyons Road, Palm Beach County sheriff ’s records state.
The SUV crashed into the guardrail and flipped. Robert was thrown from the car and died. His wife, Charlene, survived the wreck but sustained serious injuries, according to authorities.
Records indicate neither Robert nor Charlene was wearing a seat belt.
Right now, grief overpowers any physical pain the 44-year-old mother — now widowed — is feeling, said a relative who asked not to be named.
“She hasn’t gotten over her son and now this has happened,” the relative said.
Matthew Makarits, 22, and his best friend Marcus Stuckes, 21, were killed April 28 in a parking lot at Bowman Park off Haverhill Road in Greenacres. Authorities say they were killed by two men who planned to rob them of the marijuana they were going to sell.
Scott Cinevert and Rashaan Jerome “came prepared with multiple firearms” and shot Makarits and Stuckes dead, sheriff ’s records state.
At a vigil for the “inseparable” best friends, Charlene Makarits swore she’d see the “cowards” who killed her son and Stuckes be held accountable.
“They were brothers,” Makarits said. “You can’t remember one without the other.”
Cinevert and Jerome were arrested two months after the killings. As of Tuesday, they remain behind bars.
About a month after the fatal shootings, Robert and Charlene Makarits were pulled over in their 2000 Ford Explorer north of Palm Springs, court records show. Robert wasn’t wearing his seat belt and the taillights were off, a sheriff ’s investigator wrote.
The SUV reportedly smelled of alcohol. Robert blew a .121 in the Breathalyzer test, slightly over the state’s .08 legal limit. Charlene explained to law-enforcement officers that their son recently had been murdered.
Robert Makarits was on probation in that case when he lost control of the Explorer on Tuesday. According to court records, he reportedly violated probation by having a slight amount of alcohol in his system in March, among other violations. Authorities issued a warrant for his arrest Friday.
The relative who spoke to The Post and asked not to be named declined to comment on that DUI charge. Records indicate neither Robert nor Charlene Makarits have any other criminal convictions in Palm Beach County.
Sheriff ’s authorities said alcohol did not appear to be a factor in Tuesday’s fatal crash. It was not immediately clear what caused Robert Makarits to lose control of the SUV.