Stallworth Doomed by Tequila Shots
Patron on ice may have led to Donte Stallworth's DUI conviction
By TODD WRIGHT
Updated 5:23 PM CST, Tue, Jul 7, 2009
Donte Stallworth is apparently a tequila man.
In a recorded interview with Miami Beach police just after he hit Mario Reyes with his Bentley, Stallworth said he had taken four tequila shots with some football buddies at a club on South Beach that night, but didn't feel drunk.
"Three, four at the most," Stallworth told police about how many shots he had. "I wasn't really counting."
Lab tests showed Stallworth's blood-alcohol level was .126, well above Florida's .08 legal limit when he hit and killed 59-year-old Reyes on the MacArthur Causeway on March 14.
According to Stallworth's credit card receipts, he bought a $375 bottle of Patron Silver, five shots of the tequila for $90, a water, and a Red Bull energy drink. Stallworth said some of the shots were for female friends.
He was out partying with teammate and NFL star Braylon Edwards, who had practically bought out the bar himself.
A receipt shows that Edwards spent $3,443 that night at the club -- including $1,500 on Perrier-Jouet Rose champagne and $695 on Grey Goose vodka -- and he said Stallworth didn't seem impaired when they parted ways early the morning of the crash.
Edwards, 26, said he and Stallworth had drinks earlier in the day by the pool at the hotel before meeting at the nightclub. Stallworth, 28, told police he didn't feel impaired and wide receiver Edwards said his friend seemed fine.
"We're friends. If he were anything outside himself, I would have told him to stay here. He looked OK. He looked fine," Edwards said in a recorded statement.
The recorded talks don’t mention anything about the reported marijuana found in Stallworth’s system.
Stallworth is currently sitting in Miami-Dade jail serving the last couple of weeks of a 30-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter and paying off the Reyes family for the pain and suffering he caused.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Chicago
First Published: Jul 7, 2009 1:54 PM CST
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