MIAMI — A few hours at a swank Miami Beach club, at least three shots of Patron tequila and a breakfast craving added up to an accident that took a man's life and sent Donte Stallworth to jail.
The Cleveland Browns wide receiver, in a taped statement released Tuesday, detailed the hours leading up to the MacArthur Causeway crash that killed pedestrian Mario Reyes, 59, on the morning of March 14.
''I should have just stayed home,'' Stallworth told Miami Beach Detective Kevin Millan in the statement.
Stallworth is serving 30 days in jail and will spend the next decade under house arrest and on probation. He must also perform 1,000 hours of community service and can never drive again.
The NFL has suspended him indefinitely. He also reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the Reyes family.
According to police documents and taped statements, Stallworth fell asleep at about 10:30 p.m. the night before the accident. He woke up at about 1:18 a.m., text messaged pals and went to the Liv club at the Fontainebleau resort.
There, he partied with fellow Browns receiver Braylon Edwards and Denver Broncos linebacker D.J. Williams, a former University of Miami player.
He got to the nightclub after 2 a.m.
He bought a $375 bottle of Patrón for Edwards, ordered five shots at $18 each, water and a Red Bull for himself and some women before closing his tab.
Club staff said he ''conducted himself in his usual low key and friendly manner,'' documents said. One security guard said Stallworth ''appeared coherent'' as he left before 5 a.m.
Stallworth, 28, told police he went home to Miami, tried without luck to sleep and decided to drive to South Beach for breakfast on Ocean Drive. He did not feel drunk, he told Millan.
Driving on the causeway, he said, he saw Reyes crossing -- beyond the crosswalk -- just after 7 a.m. He flashed the lights of his Bentley and saw Reyes hesitate.
''I thought he was going to stop and let me go,'' Stallworth said. "I don't know why he kept going.''
Stallworth said he tried veering but could not avoid crashing into the man.
Read the full story at MiamiHerald.com
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