Nearly three years ago to the date, a drunk driver sped his Maserati through a Fort Lauderdale intersection and crashed into a Honda CRV, leaving two women hospitalized and a third with life-threatening injuries that killed her almost a year later, officials say.
On Thursday, Derrick Eaglin, 63, was arrested in the Sept. 2021 crash and charged with 18 separate counts: two counts of DUI manslaughter, one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of DUI with serious bodily injury, six counts of DUI, one count of reckless driving with serious bodily injury, and six counts of reckless driving.
Eaglin had been "evading arrest" since February of 2022, when the Broward State Attorney's Office first filed charges against him, prosecutors wrote in court documents. That August, the woman passenger, Carolyn Campbell, died at age 55. Prosecutors upgraded the charges to include DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide, but Eaglin remained at large.
Just before 12 a.m. the night of the crash, he had been driving the Maserati west towards the intersection of Southwest 9th Avenue and Davie Boulevard, according to police, going over 70 mph in a 40 mph zone.
A 20-year-old woman whose name is redacted from a probable cause affidavit was driving a Honda CRV north towards the intersection, a 19-year-old woman in tow in the front passenger seat and Campbell in the back seat. Their CRV stopped briefly at the intersection, then continued on. At that moment, Eaglin's Maserati crashed into the right side of the CRV, causing it to hit a traffic signal pole and a chain-link fence, according to the affidavit.
Witnesses in a car driving along Davie Boulevard told police that his car had traveled around theirs right before he collided with the CRV, and it would have been impossible for those in the CRV to see the Maserati until it was too late, according to the affidavit
Paramedics took everyone involved to the hospital. While Campbell suffered severe injures including a spine fracture and a cardiac arrest that left her brain injured due to lack of oxygen, the three others, including Eaglin, survived with non-life-threatening injuries.
In the early hours of the next morning, detectives spoke with Eaglin in the emergency room. His speech was slurred and he had trouble putting sentences together, according to the affidavit. Later, testing revealed his blood-alcohol level in the hospital about three hours after the crash was 0.145 g/100mL, almost twice the legal limit.
Over four months later, prosecutors filed charges against Eaglin, but it was not until Thursday that Fort Lauderdale Police's Fugitive Unit arrested him. It is unclear where he had gone during those years or how he evaded arrest for so long. Police did not say in a press release announcing the arrest.
Eaglin had a history of similar offenses, according to prosecutors. In 2010, he was convicted of reckless driving charges, reduced from a DUI charge in Miami-Dade County.