Suspect Charged with Murder and Car Theft Claims He Was Just Trying to Get to Work
A woman was killed in Dallas over the weekend after the car she was in was stolen at a gas station, then crashed while speeding about a mile away.
The incident happened at about 12:50 a.m. Sunday, according to KXAS-TV in Fort Worth.
Darion Thomas, 26, who has been charged with murder and theft in the incident, told police his side of the story, according to KDFW-TV.
Thomas told police he was inside a gas station when two people emerged from a vehicle, a Honda Accord, and walked into the station, the station reported. They left the car running.
Thomas told police he took the car, not knowing someone was in the back seat.
DALLAS CAR THEFT/MURDER SUSPECT ARRESTED: 26-year-old Darion Thomas has been booked into the Dallas County jail, and is facing charges of theft and murder for stealing a car early Sunday morning with a woman inside. Thomas then crashed the car near the 1300 block of Murdoch Dr.… pic.twitter.com/UYUoOJL2ag
— Amelia Mugavero (@amugaverotv) March 11, 2024
“What we know at this point is he stole the vehicle from a nearby business with the victim in the back seat, and then he sped away and crashed hitting a pole,” said Jesse Carr, spokeswoman for the Dallas police, according to KDFW.
The car drove away at a high speed until it crashed in a ball of fire. The crash led to the death of Karen Mariela, 32, of Honduras, who came to the U.S. a year ago.
“We came out here to see, saw the car out here pretty mangled,” Mireya Diaz, who lives near the scene of the crash, told KDFW.
“The girl, unfortunately, was out in the street, and people were still trying to pass by,” Diaz said.
KDFW reported that a witness it did not name said Thomas crawled from the wreckage and said “his legs were broken and that he stole the vehicle because he needed a ride to work. He then asked the witness for a gun to kill himself.”
The police report said Thomas “increased speed and drove recklessly when complainant Mariela began yelling at him.”
Diaz told KXAS-TV that by the time her family members arrived at the crash site “the lady had already passed away. The guy was alive. She was bleeding out of her head, and the guy had a broken leg or something.”
“He was speeding so fast we could literally hear it,” the station quoted a witness it did not name as saying. “So when the car crashed, it was just the loudest sound ever.”
“I said whoever was in the vehicle, are they OK? [Her daughter] said, ‘No, mom, there is a woman dead in the street,” said the witness.
CHARGED WITH CAPITAL MURDER
Charges are pending for a man accused of stealing a car and causing a crash that left a woman dead after she was ejected overnight, according to Dallas Policehttps://t.co/0wI4EllSZ1
— 𝙻𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚊 𝙰. 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚜 (@LauraHarrisNBC5) March 11, 2024
Thomas claimed to police he took the curve during which the car went out of control at about “260 mph,” according to KXAS. The top speed of the Honda Accord stolen in the incident is 116 miles per hour, the manufacturer said, the Austin American-Statesmen reported.
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