Woman Texts "Driving Drunk Woo" Minutes Before Deadly Crash
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A woman charged with DUI manslaughter for a crash which killed her friend in downtown Miami sent a text to her boyfriend which read "Driving drunk woo" and "I'll be dead thanks to you" and "Lata" minutes before the accident.
An attorney for the victim's family tells CBS4's Peter D'Oench this is a horrible case of drinking and driving.
"It's very disturbing to my clients who are going through a lot right now with some very difficult times. We want answers. We want to make things safer and keep someone else from being killed," attorney Ricardo Martinez-Cid told D'Oench. "It's upsetting. This was highly preventable. Ms. Dago clearly should not have been drinking and aside from the drinking there was an altered emotional state. If Irina Reinoso had known her friend been texting she had been drinking, she would almost certainly would not have been in that vehicle. There was no regard to the person in the vehicle or the driver of the other vehicle."
On Thursday, prosecutors released new evidence, including a string of text messages, involving that deadly crash on August 14th, 2013, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
Another text said, "I'm done. You ruined me. You'll be the death of me."
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The boyfriend, who was identified as D.J., texted back, "What you talking about. You're psycho. Stop weirdo."
Mila Dago, then 22, was behind the wheel of a rented Smart Car when she reportedly blew through a red light at Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 15th Street around 4:45 a.m. and t-boned a truck driven by 51-year old Benjamin Byrum.
Dago and Byrum survived the crash. Dago's friend and passenger, 22-year old Irina Reinoso, was killed.
Prosecutors say that at the time of the crash Dago was in the middle of a nasty break up with her boyfriend. As she and her friends bar hopped, she fired off a series of angry texts to him.
Three minutes after sending the last message, prosecutors say Dago crashed into the truck. Blood tests revealed that Dago's blood alcohol level was .178, more than twice the legal limit, nearly two hours after the crash, according to police.
Dago has pleaded not guilty to DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and two counts of DUI with damage to a person. No trial date has been set.
Reinoso was a student at Miami-Dade College who dreamed of going into law enforcement. She had just one sibling. Her brother Luciano Reinoso told CBS4 in August of 2013, "She was beautiful. She will be missed. She was a free spirit. She had a wonderful laugh."
Martinez-Cid is suing Dago and Car2GO, a vehicle sharing company from which she rented the smart car.
"What we have is a business where people can go late at night, at 3 in the morning, after going to bars and clubs and rent a vehicle from an operation that is unmanned, on a whim."
He said the company should have more safeguards in place to prevent drunk driving.
CBS4 reached out to the company and was told a spokesperson would get back to us.