DeKalb police are still investigating whether an illegal street drag race played a role in killing two children last weekend but officials acknowledge that the dare-devil crime can run rampant at times on south Moreland Avenue.
A DeKalb magistrate Tuesday set a $300,000 bond for James G. Benford and a $175,000 bond for Melanie Putnam on vehicular homicide and reckless driving charges in the deaths of Lauren Coleman, 3, and Jordan Coleman, 4. Benford rated a higher bond because he had several citations in the past five years including two for speeding, while Putnam had a clean driving record.
The stretch of 4-lane road containing the crash site that took the lives of the Coleman children is a relatively desolate industrial sector two miles north of I-285, just south of the Starlight Theater, with little traffic, especially at night. It’s miles of straight-away can prove tempting to heavy-footed scofflaws, said Assistant Chief Ed Jones, who oversees traffic enforcement.
“I don’t know the number of arrests but we’ve made several there in the past, usually we charge them with reckless driving,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. “Normally when the weather gets nice, you start seeing those (drag-racing) complaints pop up so we always work them in our summer plans.”
The arrest warrant noted the 11 p.m. Sunday wreck occurred when Benford’s 2004 Monte Carlo and Putnam’s 2001 GS300 Lexus were speeding in excess of 100 miles per hour. According to the police report, the two cars were nearly neck-in-neck when they collided with the Chrysler Sebring carrying the Coleman family, including the mother and a 6-year-old sibling, both of whom are still hospitalized.
Benford, 42 of Lithonia, told the court he was employed at Georgia Tech and he also had his own contracting business. He also has a 1993 conviction for dangerous drugs, according to police, but the court noted it was 22 years ago. Putnam, 27 of Fayetteville, is a master cosmetologist, according to state records. Her family declined to comment on leaving court.
Jones said that case was still under investigation on whether Benford and Putnam were drag racers or simply heavy-footed drivers. Their ages, however, did not suggest one way or the other, the assistant chief said.
“You would like to say it was young folks making those mistakes and judgment calls but it runs the gamut,” he said.
But he said the races are often more organized than two cars ending up going head-to-head. Instead they are often elaborate affairs organized on social media, Jones said. “They have pop-up areas where they will meet,” he said. “Normally these are pre-planned things – not usually weeks out but days or even hours out.”
DeKalb investigators are looking into links that the pair have with car clubs, said DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish. More than adozen brochures advertising the Nopi Nationals Supershows were scattered in the crash site near the crushed guard rail and skid marks.
Nopi puts on car shows — the next is the first week of May in Norcross — which promote style as well as performance, such as drifting, a choreographed skidding technique driver skill made famous in the movie The Fast and Furious.
Mark Meyers, manager of Nopi Motorwerkz in Forest Park, told The AJC that Benford and Putnam were not employed by his company and he didn’t know of any connection they had with his shows. He said while the company sometimes sponsored drag races, they were the legitimate kind that took place on track.
“We do car shows and apparently they like cars, but I don’t see any tie in other than they like car shows,” he said.
The Coleman kids died after the crash that occurred when their mother's Sebring got in the way of two cars barreling southbound on Moreland Avenue about 11 p.m. Sunday, said Mekka Parish, spokeswoman for DeKalb police.
Their 30-year-old mother, Cazhara Lovett, 30, was turning west on to Constitution Road when Benford’s 2004 Monte Carlo and Putnam’s 2001 GS300 Lexus topped a hill side-by-side in the southbound lanes and slammed into Lovett’s car, according to a police drawing.
Benford told police he observed the Sebring in the intersection as he approached. Putnam said the traffic light was green as she approached the intersection and said the Sebring then turned into her path, according to the police report.
Lovett and 6-year-old Jaylen Coleman remain hospitalized. Lovett’s injuries were not life-threatening, and the child was in stable condition Monday, Parish said.
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