A Milwaukee man has been charged in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed a 70-year-old pastor’s wife and injured her grandson. Prosecutors say the man, Donte Miller, fled the scene after crashing a speeding vehicle into the victims’ SUV.
Miller, 30, was formally charged with second-degree reckless homicide, hit-and-run resulting in death in January, and related offenses, Fox6 reported.
The accused appeared in court Friday, where a $150,000 bond was set and a competency exam was ordered.
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The crash reportedly occurred on Jan. 4 near 34th and Lloyd in Milwaukee.
Beverly Fair and her grandson had just left a relative’s home when a fast-moving car struck their SUV. Fair died from her injuries, while her grandson, Jordan, was hospitalized.
Shyla Deacon, Jordan’s mother and Fair’s daughter, called Jordan’s survival a miracle. “I saw the vehicle, and with my mother’s injuries, the fact that he walked out [of] the hospital, I’m a firm believer it was a miracle that he survived that car accident,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at the time.
According to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, the suspect was driving between 60 and 80 miles per hour in the residential area.
Surveillance footage obtained by Fox captured the moment of the collision. One of the vehicles veered into a residential front yard, and debris from the impact scattered across the street and onto a nearby porch.
The force of the crash left car parts strewn across the block.
A criminal complaint said officers had initially spotted a car near 35th and Vine speeding and missing a front license plate. Police activated their lights and sirens in an attempt to stop the car, but briefly lost visual contact. Moments later, they came upon the crash scene, where the vehicle had collided with Fair’s SUV.
The driver fled on foot, abandoning the car with the engine running. Officers found the keys still in the ignition and a cellphone inside the vehicle.
The car bore a Minnesota license plate not registered to it. A VIN check revealed the car was associated with Miller.
Investigators also learned Miller was a known suspect in a previous police chase that occurred in 2023.
A subsequent search of his apartment uncovered documents and car-related papers linked to the vehicle left at the crash site.
DNA collected from the car was submitted for analysis and returned results “consistent with” Miller having been the driver, the complaint stated. Prosecutors added that Miller did not have a valid driver’s license at the time of the crash.
State records indicated that Miller’s driving privileges had been suspended since September 2024. That suspension stemmed from a 2022 incident in which Miller was also accused of fleeing from law enforcement.
