Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

No charge in carwash death

Investigators say a woman killed by an SUV was the victim of a tragic accident, not a criminal act.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published July 28, 2005

TAMPA - Densil Blake, a 50-year-old attendant at the Town & Country Car Wash, panicked when the SUV he was wiping down slipped out of neutral and rolled toward Brenda Lee Brown and her toddler.

Blake slammed his size 18 shoes on what he thought was the Isuzu's brake, according to Hillsborough sheriff's detectives who investigated the May 6 incident. But Blake's foot hit the gas. Blake watched in horror as the Isuzu surged forward and hit Brown, 43, killing her.

Brown's death was a terrible accident, investigators have concluded. But it was not criminal.

Blake, a Jamaica native described by authorities as mentally impaired, will not face charges in connection with the incident, sheriff's Cpl. Donald Morris said Wednesday.

"Multiple factors led to this being an accident," he said. "The location of the gear shift in the vehicle, the fact that the vehicle was still running after it came off the wash line, the fact that the person wiping down the vehicle wasn't familiar with the vehicle - combined it just led to something tragic."

Brown's husband Mac Brown, meanwhile, has retained the prominent Tampa law firm of Steve Yerrid, best known for his work defeating Big Tobacco. Yerrid also is representing the family of Clearwater teen Rebecca McKinney, who was hit and killed by a pickup truck Oct. 8 after getting off a Pinellas school bus.

Brown declined an interview request, instead directing a reporter to the Yerrid Law Firm.

Yerrid attorney Tammy Judge would not say whether Brown, vice president of a medical manufacturing company, plans to file a civil suit against the carwash. But she said she will be eager to read Morris' report.

"We're still in the investigative stages right now," Judge said. "We're just trying to understand what happened, the circumstances surrounding this terrible death. I think our client's main concern is that something like this doesn't happen to someone else.

"It was very bizarre, and people wondered how that could happen."

Calls to the carwash at 8211 W Hillsborough Ave. went unanswered Wednesday afternoon. Blake could not be reached.

Morris said Blake was just doing his job that Friday afternoon in May.

He saw the Isuzu come off the wash line and walked over to wipe down the dashboard, Morris said.

"He never intended to move the car," Morris said.

But the Isuzu was still running, and the gear shift was located between the driver and passenger seats, Morris said. Blake, a tall, lanky man, accidentally knocked it out of neutral as he wiped down the inside of the car, according to the sheriff's report.

The Isuzu rolled forward. Blake told investigators he looked up and saw Brown pushing her son Darnell in his stroller across the carwash parking lot toward her just-washed Nissan Pathfinder. He panicked.

Blake told sheriff's investigators that he "hit the brakes but it did not stop."

"It kept going faster."

"He's a big guy with size 18 feet," Morris said. "He was trying to hit the brake, and thought he was hitting the brake but in fact was hitting the gas. Unless he was intoxicated, which he was not, there's nothing we could have charged him with."

Morris said Blake does not have the mental capacity befitting his age.

As he recounted the Isuzu's acceleration toward Brown, he got upset and broke down, Morris said. He was too distraught to finish the interview.

Judge said Brown, devastated after losing his wife of nearly five years, struggles without her. And Darnell, she said, misses his mother.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 28, 2005, 01:09:17]