Teen not charged after FHP says he punched 15-year-old classmate and fled the scene

VERO LAKE ESTATES, FL. — We are investigating the case of a 15-year-old girl who was killed while waiting for the school bus.

We first reported the incident when it happened on April 12.

Six months have passed since the accidental death of Hayley Hughes, but no one has yet been charged.

WPTV investigative reporter Kate Hussey has been digging through records for the past two months to find out why.

Haley’s mother, Jericho Hughes, told Hussey that she felt she had been robbed of justice.

“She was just getting started. She…she was my first born. I was 18 when she was born to me. We pretty much grew up together,” Jericho Hughes said through tears. “I was so excited to see what she was going to do.”

On April 12, the Florida Highway Patrol said 15-year-old Hailey Hughes was walking to her bus stop at the corner of 79th and 102nd avenues when a truck plowed into the Sebastian River High Schooler, striking her and sending her body to a grassy shoulder . .

The teenager was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center, but doctors determined that her brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long and pronounced her dead.

Ten days later, Jericho Hughes made the heartbreaking decision to disconnect her daughter from life support.

“It was … um … it was the hardest part, watching my daughter stop breathing,” Hughes said. “From that moment on, we knew she wasn’t coming home.”

WPTV

FHP said the person who hit Haley was one of her classmates. A 17-year-old boy on his way to school.

We are not identifying him because he is a minor.

According to the FHP’s Traffic Homicide Investigation Report, the teenager not only hit Haley, but also left the scene.

Chronology

The only 911 call related to the crash came from the teenage driver’s father.

“911, what’s your 911 address?” – the dispatcher asked in the call.

“I was just passing by, there is a young girl standing at the construction site, her… She seems to have been hit by a car,” the father told the dispatcher. “She doesn’t speak, but she breathes, thank God.”

FHP said the teenager’s cell phone records show he hit Gailey at about 6:23 a.m.

They say he stopped immediately after the accident.

Investigators said the teenager told them he thought he hit a mailbox.

They say he then called his father and told investigators his father told him to go back home to look at the damage.

WPTV

Cell phone records show the teenager went back to school at 6:31 a.m.

According to the FHP report, at 6:37 a.m. the father of the driver was at the scene of the accident and called the emergency services.

“An ambulance is on the way, and so are law enforcement,” the dispatcher said.

“She’s breathing, a little hard. Please. Hurry up,” answered the father.

“You don’t see any traffic around or any…?” – asked the dispatcher.

“No, well, I… I… I… I know what happened, I know what happened, I just got a call from my son, he was going to school, um, on 79th Street, he says : “Dad, I think I hit the mailbox, I don’t understand, I wasn’t even in the middle of the road,” said the father.

“Okay, so your son must have hit a vehicle or hit a person?” – asked the dispatcher.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying!” said the father.

“Okay, okay, it’s… it’s… well, you said you weren’t 100 percent sure, so I wanted to make sure,” the dispatcher replied.

“No, no, no, I… I… I’m 100% sure,” said the father.

It’s 6:40 in the morning, at least 17 minutes after she probably got into Haley.

– Where is your son? – asked the dispatcher.

“I… I… he came to my house and then he… he showed me where, like he told me where the mailbox was and I said, ‘Okay…’ and then he said, ‘It’s the plastic one on the curb, white,” said the father.

Hailey’s mom said her daughter was wearing dark clothing at the time of the crash. Jeans, Converse and a dark top.

In its report, FHP said it was dark at the time of the crash, with little to no lighting.

“I see… uh… cars are coming now,” the father told the dispatcher.

“Okay, can you see the lights and sirens coming?” – asked the dispatcher.

“Yeah, and like I said, I look at the tracks on the road, stuff like that,” the father said.

— Ah-ah-ah, — replies the dispatcher.

“It’s okay, he drove over the side of the road, that’s all…” the father continues during the call to 911. At this point, sirens can be heard arriving at the scene.

FHP

Records from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office show a trauma helicopter landed at the scene at 7:12 a.m., nearly an hour after FHP believes Haley was hit.

Paramedics put Haley on oxygen, according to medical records.

However, it still takes almost an hour to get her to the hospital and be seen by the trauma team. Hailey’s medical records show she arrived at 8:08 am

“The damage was just too much (gone),” Hughes said.

According to the report in Haley’s hospital records, she had no broken bones and no damage to vital organs, except for her brain, which was bleeding.

A CT scan shows that the bleeding turned into a so-called “anoxic brain injury,” meaning her brain was deprived of oxygen.

WPTV

We wanted to know if the length of time it took to get Haley to the hospital contributed to her death, so we sent her records to another neurologist to review.

Brent Masel is the National Medical Director of the Brain Injury Association of America.

“Would her early treatment have made a difference in her chances of survival?” Khasi Masela asked.

“Yes, the delay definitely made things a lot worse,” Masel said. “Time is the brain.”

The FHP said the teenage driver told investigators he was looking for something in his purse when the crash occurred, and investigators concluded in their crash report that the teen was “driving in a careless or negligent manner” and “fled the scene.”

However, the General Prosecutor’s Office responded to the writing of the protocol, the prosecutor’s office does not plan to initiate a criminal case, since “the facts of the case do not establish that the defendant knew about the victim’s bodily injuries when the defendant left the scene of the accident.”

The letter added that if more evidence is uncovered, prosecutors will re-examine the case.

To Hughes, however, it all seems so unfair. She waited too many months for justice, and Hayley waited too many minutes for help.

The daughter’s story: abridged. Of her grieving mother: not yet written.

“How can you be sad with an open ending?” Hughes asked through tears. “She’s still in intensive care in my mind. When I wake up in the morning, I wake up in a panic, thinking I have to rush back to the hospital, and then I have to remind myself.”

Hughes has now set up a small memorial for Hayley, which is a glimpse into the young girl’s life: full of flowers, toys and trinkets.

We called the state attorney’s office to ask why the case didn’t merit a reckless driving or hit-and-run charge.

Prosecutor Bill Long told Hussey he could not comment on the case, but said his team is generally cautious about prosecuting lesser charges because double jeopardy can become a barrier to more serious charges.

We also called the teenager’s family. His father and the family’s attorney told us they had no comment.