Ex-FBI agent at fault, prosecutors say

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Prosecutors said Wednesday that a former FBI agent was directly responsible for the death of two Lauderhill brothers in an interstate accident.

Closing arguments began in the trial of David Farrall, 39, charged with vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter.

Assistant State Attorney Michael Horowitz said the scientific evidence presented in the case proved that Farrall was traveling in the wrong direction and was drunk when his car plowed into another vehicle, killing the men on Interstate 95.

Farrall is accused of being drunk, driving the wrong way on I-95 and killing youth minister Maurice Williams, 23, and his half brother Craig Chambers, a 19-year-old college student. Farrall could face 30 years in prison if convicted.

The former agent insisted in testimony on Tuesday that he was not impaired and was driving in the right direction before the near head-on collision on Nov. 23, 1999.

Under cross-examination on Tuesday, Horowitz asked Farrall repeatedly about the "poor judgment" he showed by drinking and driving. Farrall admitted drinking beer at a Davie restaurant before the crash.

"I think you drive better when you're not drinking, but I wasn't impaired," Farrall said. "So it makes no difference."

Farrall said he knew where he was going and would not have driven southbound in the northbound lanes. Experts for the prosecution have testified that only Farrall could have been driving the wrong way when the vehicles collided head-on.

The Florida Highway Patrol initially botched the investigation by blaming one of the brothers as the wrong-way driver and not formally changing that finding for a month.

Critics charged that the FHP jumped to the wrong conclusion because the victims were black and Farrall is white and was a law enforcement veteran.

A separate state investigation found no evidence of racism or a coverup in the FHP's handling of the crash, but FHP training has changed in response.

Farrall had a blood alcohol content of 0.14. The law presumes impairment at 0.08. He had drunk more than two pitchers of beer, investigators concluded.

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