After a Dania Beach man hit a pedestrian, he saw the body on his windshield. But instead of immediately calling police, he first drove home to stash his marijuana, an arrest report said.
Terrance Pressey, 37, still was on the phone with 911 when he got back to the crash scene and saw paramedics attempting to save the injured pedestrian’s life, the report said. “Oh s—,” Pressey told the dispatcher. “They are doing CPR.”
Madhusudhan Bhetwal, 53, died at the scene in the 5100 block of Southwest 40th Avenue, south of Griffin Road, in Dania Beach, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
It appears Bhetwal was trying to cross the avenue from west to east when Pressey’s white Dodge Charger hit him, police said.
The crash, according to an arrest report, happened about 12:25 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 2.
Evidence from the scene suggested that Bhetwal may have been impaired from alcohol, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said a few days after the crash.
It was not immediately clear why Pressey’s arrest didn’t happen until Thursday.
Pressey told a 911 dispatcher that he saw a guy crossing the road and “I hit him,” according to an arrest report.
He didn’t remain at the scene, Pressey said, because he had someone in the car that he had to drop off, but he was on his way back.
Pressey eventually admitted that no one had been in his car with him and he had to “drop off his weed,” police said. Pressey lived on Griffin Road, less than two miles from the crash site, records show.
Instead of just marijuana possession and perhaps a traffic charge — Pressey is now charged with failing to stop at an accident with a death, a felony, as well as misdemeanor possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis.
“Terrance Pressey failed to remain on scene, provide information, and render aid as required by Florida law,” Officer Sherry Slagle-Grant wrote in her report.
Broward County Court Judge Giuseppina Miranda, at a Friday court hearing, ordered that Pressey be held on $20,000 bond.
Pressey, who works at a pub, is allowed to work if he posts bond but must wear an electric ankle monitor and cannot drive any vehicles.
He still was in the Broward Main Jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Monday evening.
tealanez@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4542 or Twitter @talanez