A North Charleston man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of reckless homicide in a March 2023 crash that killed two people as he argued with a passenger while driving nearly 100 miles per hour through a residential speed zone. Darrius Laverne Frasier received the maximum 10-year penalty on each count, with the terms ordered to run back-to-back.
A Deadly Argument on Dorchester Road
The sentence, handed down by Judge R. Keith Kelly, stemmed from a crash that happened at 11:39 a.m. on March 2, 2023, on Dorchester Road in North Charleston, according to Live 5 News. Prosecutors said Frasier was driving a Ford Fusion while engaged in a verbal argument with passenger Sacha Hampton Jr., and that his speed increased as the argument escalated. He weaved around other vehicles and ran a red light before his car struck a vehicle driven by Allison Smith as she turned onto the interstate with a green traffic arrow, the outlet reported.
Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. Hampton was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina, where he was also pronounced dead, per the same account. The North Charleston Police Department's Traffic Unit examined the vehicle's airbag control module as part of the investigation that followed.
Data Showed Speeds Near 100 MPH
That module's data showed Frasier was traveling 95.2 mph five seconds before the crash in a 35-mph zone, according to the solicitor's office. He did not brake until one second before the collision and was traveling 83.3 mph at the moment of impact, the same data showed. Investigators also obtained surveillance video from four intersections along the route Frasier had driven.
Bond Revoked After Violent Incidents, Prosecutors Say
Frasier had been free on a $200,000 bond, granted six days after his arrest, according to the Post and Courier. That changed in June, when a judge revoked his bond and sent him back to jail on June 17 following allegations of multiple assaults, the newspaper reported. Prosecutor Jordan Norvell told the court that law enforcement had contact with Frasier four times after his release and that “each incident was violent in nature.”
Circuit Judge Roger M. Young said at the time that Frasier had violated the good-conduct terms of his bonds and that his behavior made him a threat to the safety of communities. At sentencing, Assistant Solicitor Jordan Norvell asked the court to impose the maximum consecutive sentence, citing both the crash speed and the verbal altercations prosecutors said escalated while Frasier was out on bond. Prosecutors also presented what they described as a pattern of noncompliance during the bond hearing, Live 5 News reported.
Why the Case Drew a Maximum Sentence
Judge Kelly's decision to impose the maximum 10-year penalty on each charge, served consecutively, means Frasier will serve 20 years total in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Special Counsel Chad Simpson and Investigator Dustin Morris assisted with the prosecution, according to Live 5 News.
Speeding remains a persistent factor in South Carolina's deadliest crashes. The state recorded 382 speed-related fatalities in 2023, with speed ranking among the top five contributing factors statewide that year, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. Nationally, speeding was a factor in 28 percent of fatal crashes in 2023, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
