Man gets 10 years for crash that killed friend

By LARRY KELLER | Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, June 06, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — Joshua Braswell loved working on cars and hoped to become a mechanic. But his recklessness behind the wheel of his own car put his career plans on hold Friday as a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison for a vehicular homicide that killed his friend.

“You may not have intended to kill, but you intended to speed,” Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown told Braswell, 22, as she imposed the sentence. “It was a crime of recklessness.”

Braswell, of Greenacres, was driving about 90 mph on State Road 7 north of Boynton Beach Boulevard in October 2006 when he slammed into a tractor-trailer, killing his passenger and friend, Joseph Nannariello, 19, of Royal Palm Beach. Braswell sustained a broken leg and a concussion. The trucker was unhurt.

Braswell was given credit for the 19 months he has been in jail. The judge also revoked Braswell’s driver license for 20 years.

Braswell’s mother said by telephone during the sentencing hearing that when her son was 10, she learned his father had been molesting him. She notified authorities, and Braswell’s father was convicted of sex abuse charges and died in prison.

Her son began taking special education classes when he was in junior high school and apparently had attention deficit disorder, his mother said. Despite that and the emotional scars from his father, he graduated from high school and had enlisted in the Navy shortly before the fatal crash.

“Every child has difficulties,” retorted Nannariello’s mother, Carol. She, an uncle, an aunt and a neighbor urged the maximum sentence under state guidelines: 15 years.

“I was very critical of Joseph’s friends,” Carol Nannariello said. “How this one got past me is beyond me.”

After the family members presented a slide show retrospective of their son and their family, Braswell stood and faced them. Looking more like a science fair winner than a hot rodder, he expressed his remorse and his condolences.

“I loved him like my very own brother,” Braswell said. “He became a true friend who I miss terribly.”

Then, specifically addressing his dead friend’s parents, Braswell added: “I speak from the heart when I say I wish it had been me, not him. I’m so sorry for what I’ve put you through.”

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Braswell convicted in fatal high-speed crash

By LARRY KELLER | Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 03, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — Joshua Braswell learned in October 2006 that speed kills, and on Thursday that lesson became more painful when a jury found him guilty of vehicular homicide.

Braswell, 21, of Greenacres, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 6. He faces 10 to 15 years in prison in connection with the high-speed crash that killed his friend and passenger, Joseph Nannariello, 19, of Royal Palm Beach.

One of Braswell’s attorneys, Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence, said she will ask Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown to sentence him as a youthful offender. That would net him a maximum sentence of six years, which could consist of some combination of prison time and probation, Lawrence said.

The jury reached its verdict after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations. Braswell, closed his eyes for a moment and looked down.

Nannariellos mother, Carol, said she hopes Braswell gets the maximum sentence. “My son was robbed of his life and his future, and my family was robbed of that too,” she said.

Joseph Nannariello was contemplating taking courses to become an auto mechanic because he loved cars, his mother said. “He was a good-hearted person with a good soul,” she said.

Prosecutor Adam McMichael argued at trial that Braswell drove his Honda CRX “in a reckless manner” at a speed of 90 mph that made it impossible to avoid slamming into the rear of a semi-truck on a darkened stretch of U.S. 441 north of Boynton Beach Boulevard.

Lawrence conceded that her client was speeding, but said it wasn’t clear exactly how fast he was driving. “It was an accident, not vehicular homicide,” she said in her closing argument.

Truck driver Samuel Gervais was at fault, not Braswell, Lawrence maintained. Gervais had been driving northbound when he made a U-turn in a designated U-turn lane. That’s when Braswells car slammed into the big rig.

“He was speeding, but that speeding did not cause this accident,” Lawrence told jurors. Instead, it was Garvais failure to recognize how close any vehicle may be approaching him.

Nannariellos mother said outside the courtroom that she doesn’t think Braswell is remorseful over her son’s death. Lawrence disagreed.

“He’s quite remorseful,” she said. “It was his best friend.” And, she added, “He’s very scared.”

Driver found guilty of vehicular homicide in U.S. 441 crash

By Missy Diaz | South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

3:46 PM EDT, April 3, 2008

As a jury found Joshua Braswell guilty of vehicular homicide today, the mother of the victim, Carol Nannariello, kissed the gold necklace charm that contained the high school graduation picture of her now dead son, Joseph.

Braswell, 21, of Greenacres, was behind the wheel of a Honda CRX that plowed into a tractor-trailer on U.S. 441 in October 2006. Nannariello, his passenger, died at the scene.

According to his mother, the 19-year-old from Royal Palm Beach loved cars and dreamed of becoming a mechanic. A graduate of the former Survivors Charter School, Nannariello worked at Schumacher Buick.

Braswell’s public defenders plan to ask Ciruit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown to sentence him as a youthful offender, which caps the punishment at six years behind bars.

Carol Nannariello wants Braswell to get the maximum 15 years.

“I’m not a mean person, but justice needs to be done,” she said.

Sentencing was set for June 6.

During the trial, Prosecutor Adam McMichael claimed Braswell was speeding recklessly when he plowed into the truck carrying 30,000 pounds of okra. The 18-wheeler was making a U-turn when Braswell’s Honda skidded underneath its tire and axle. Rescue workers had to cut Braswell out.

Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence, in her opening statement, countered that it was the truck driver, not Braswell, who was at fault that night.

Braswell and Nannariello were headed south on U.S. 441 to The Home Depot off Hypoluxo Road, where they met every Monday night to look at each other’s cars.

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Trial in crash death starts

Joshua Braswell was in court Tuesday morning for first arguments in the case against him for vehicular manslaughter. Braswell was allegedly racing a car on 441 and crashed into a tractor trailer killing the passenger, Joseph Nannariello. (Uma Sanghvi/The Post)

By LARRY KELLER | Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — On this there is no dispute: Joshua Braswell was driving on a very dark road just before he crashed into the rear of a semi-truck, killing his passenger, his friend.

What is in dispute in his vehicular manslaughter trial is who was responsible for the Oct. 30, 2006, crash that killed Joseph Nannariello, 19, of Royal Palm Beach.

Assistant State Attorney Adam McMichael told jurors Tuesday in his opening statement that Braswell, driving at “a gross, extreme rate of speed” that reached 90 mph, was responsible.

Not so, argued Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence. Evidence will show it was the truck driver, not Braswell, who “caused this very tragic accident,” she said.

Braswell, 21, of Greenacres, and young men in at least two other cars were driving south on U.S. 441 to meet at a spot in Boca Raton. At the same time, the driver of a semi-truck, transporting 30,000 pounds of okra, was driving north on the road. The trucker, Samuel Gervais, then made a U-turn in a designated U-turn lane north of Boynton Beach Boulevard, both attorneys said.

Braswell – driving 90 mph or 6130 feet per second in a Honda CRX – rear-ended the truck, McMichael said. There was 4 feet of “crush damage” to his car, he said.

Lawrence said there are conflicting estimates as to how fast Braswell was driving that night.

Witness Henry Garza points to defendent Joshua Braswell in court Tuesday morning. Braswell was in court for first arguments in the case against him for vehicular manslaughter. Braswell was allegedly racing a car on 441 and crashed into a tractor trailer killing the passenger, Joseph Nannariello. Garza was an acquaintance of Braswell’s and witnessed the crash from a separate car, behind the one Braswell was driving. (Uma Sanghvi/The Post)

The first witness McMichael called Tuesday was Henry Garza, 23, one of the men heading to the Boca meeting spot that night. He said he saw Braswell zoom past the car in which he was a passenger. A short time later, they came upon the Honda smashed into the back of the semi-truck.

Garza said he couldn’t see Braswell because the driver’s side of the Honda was under the truck. Nannariello, the passenger, “was lying on his back with his feet up on the dash.” He was unconscious.

Gervais, the truck driver, felt only a bump, was unhurt and called 911, the lawyers said.

Driver on trial in fatal crash ‘addicted’ to fast cars, prosecutor says

By Missy Diaz | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

April 2, 2008

It was addiction, according to prosecutor Adam McMichael, that led Joshua Braswell to race his car down U.S. 441 at speeds of 90 mph in pitch darkness. The result was a violent crash with a semitrailer truck that claimed the life of Braswell’s passenger and friend, 19-year-old Joseph Nannariello of Royal Palm Beach.

“He was addicted to his car,” McMichael told a jury Tuesday during opening statements in the vehicular homicide trial of Braswell, 21, of Greenacres.

Braswell worked at Ed Morse Honda and drove a black Honda CRX. In his free time, he and his buddies enjoyed “car shows,” a popular vernacular used by teens when referring to street racing.

About 10 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2006, Braswell, Nannariello and other friends in other cars headed southbound on U.S. 441 en route to a Boca Raton “car show,” McMichael said.

McMichael maintains that Braswell was speeding recklessly when he plowed into the truck carrying 30,000 pounds of okra. The 18-wheeler was making a U-turn when Braswell’s Honda skidded underneath its tire and axle. Rescue workers cut Braswell out. Nannariello died at the scene.

Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence, in her opening statement, countered that it was the truck driver, not Braswell, who was at fault that night. Braswell and Nannariello were headed south on U.S. 441 to The Home Depot off Hypoluxo Road, where they met every Monday night to look at each other’s cars.

Braswell had not been drinking or using drugs, though he was speeding, Lawrence said. She said testimony will differ on just how fast he was going — anywhere between 51 and 91 mph.

The truck had no business making the U-turn, she said, and it was the semi that dragged the Honda to the west side of U.S. 441 after impact.

Braswell faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Missy Diaz can be reached at mdiaz@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5505.

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Trial begins in speeding death of Royal Palm Beach man

Source: Palm Beach Post

By LARRY KELLER | Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — A 21-year-old Greeenacres man went on trial Tuesday for killing a passenger in his car while driving 90 miles per hour on State Road 441 north of Boynton Beach Boulevard.

Joshua Braswell is charged with vehicular homicide in the October 2006 death of his friend and passenger, Joseph Nannariello, 19, of Royal Palm Beach.

Braswell and young men in at least two other cars were driving south on 441 to meet at a designated spot in Boca Raton. By all accounts, the road was dark. Braswell accelerated past the others at “a gross, extreme rate of speed,” prosecutor Adam McMichael told jurors in his opening statement.

At the same time, the driver of a semi-truck transporting 30,000 pounds of okra was driving north on State Road 441. The trucker, Samuel Gervais, then made a U-turn in a lane designated for doing so. Braswell — driving 90 mph or 130 feet per second in a Honda CRX — rear-ended the truck, McMichael said. There was four feet of “crush damage” to Braswell’s car, he added.

Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence told jurors that the evidence will show that Gervais, not Braswell, “caused this very tragic accident.”

The first witness McMichael called was Henry Garza, 23, who was one of the men heading to the Boca Raton meeting spot. He said he saw Braswell zoom past the car in which he was a passenger. A short time later, they came upon the Honda smashed into the back of the semi-truck.

Garza said he couldn’t see Braswell, because the driver’s side of the Honda was under the truck. Nannariello, the passenger, “was lying on his back with his feet up on the dash.” He was unconscious. Gervais, the truck driver, was unhurt and called 911.

21-year-old goes on trial for vehicular homicide

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

By Missy Diaz | Sun-Sentinel.com

2:54 PM EDT, April 1, 2008

It was addiction, according to Prosecutor Adam McMichael, that led Joshua Braswell to race his car down U.S. 441 at speeds of 90 mph in pitch darkness. The end result was a violent crash with a tractor-trailer that claimed the life of Braswell’s passenger and friend, 19-year-old Joseph Nannariello of Royal Palm Beach.

“He was addicted to his car,” McMichael told a jury Tuesday during opening statements in the vehicular homicide trial of Braswell, 21, of Greenacres.

The now 21-year-old worked at Ed Morse Honda and drove a black Honda CRX. In his free time, Braswell and his buddies enjoyed “car shows,” a popular vernacular used by teens when referring to drag racing.

About 10 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2006, Braswell, Nannariello and other friends in other cars headed southbound on a pitch black U.S 441 en route to a Boca Raton “car show,” McMichael said.

McMichael maintains that Braswell was speeding recklessly when he plowed into a tractor-trailer carrying 30,000 pounds of okra. The semi was making a U-turn when Braswell’s Honda skidded underneath the 18-wheeler’s tire and axle. Rescue worker cut Braswell out. Nannariello died at the scene.

Assistant Public Defender Shawnee Lawrence, in her opening statement, countered that it was the truck driver, not Braswell, who was at fault that night.

Braswell and Nannariello were headed south on U.S. 441 to the Home Depot off Hypoluxo Road, where they met every Monday night to look at each other’s cars. Braswell had not been drinking or using drugs, though he was speeding, Lawrence said, though she said testimony will differ on just how fast he was going -anywhere between 51 mph and 91 mph.

The truck had no business making the U-turn, she said, and it was the semi that dragged the Honda to the west side of U.S. 441 after impact. Braswell faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Missy Diaz can be reached at mdiaz@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5505.

Teen drivers and fast cars: Royal Palm mother urges state to act

By Jerome Burdi | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Posted May 24 2007

Royal Palm Beach | Carol Nannariello can’t help but think that she could have done something to prevent her only son’s death.

Joseph Nannariello, who lived here with his parents and two younger sisters, was killed Oct. 30. He was 19.

He was the passenger in a Honda CRX that apparently was speeding along a popular drag-racing strip on U.S. 441 west of Boynton Beach. The driver, his friend Joshua Braswell, 20, of Greenacres, is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail on vehicular homicide charges.

Nannariello isn’t the only mother whose loss has prompted the need to cry out the dangers of drag racing.

“How many parents out there feel the way I feel?” she asked. “The state needs to get a grip on teenage drivers.”

Florida, along with California and Texas, has led the nation since 2000 with the most traffic fatalities of 16- to 19-year-olds, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2005, the latest year available, Florida had 367 fatalities in that age group. California had 440; Texas, 375.

The victims are just on the brink of adulthood where a few more months, maybe a year, would give them more sense, teach them to take better care of themselves, parents said.

“He loved cars but he knew right from wrong,” Nannariello said. “He had done stupid things but he was a good kid. I just want this to stop.”

Joseph Nannariello’s room is the way he left it 3:30 p.m. that day. He told his mom he was off to a “car show” in Boca Raton. The “car shows” are where teens usually go to race. That’s where Stephen Vivarttas, 18, of Boynton Beach, died April 25.

Vivarttas planned to spend time with his girlfriend that night but was called three times by a friend to come out and race. By the third time he took out his Dodge Neon SRT-4 to the meet west of West Palm Beach. During a drag race he died, family said. The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating to see if another car was involved.

Both Vivarttas and Nannariello were aspiring mechanics. Both had driving histories of speeding, state records show. Though some parents know their children are into fast cars, it is hard to walk the line of guidance and freedom, parents said.

“How can you police an 18-year-old kid?” asked Vivarttas’ mother, Cathy Vivarttas. “Can you keep them locked in the house? The more you try to pull them, the more out of control they’re going to become. This is something they love to do. It isn’t wrong for them to do this, but there is something wrong about how they do it.”

State Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, has been in touch with Nannariello over her bill that would restrict the number of people in a car younger than 18. The bill failed but Skidmore will reintroduce it, she said. Skidmore said the problem is there is no driver’s education requirement in the state.

“They need to learn the responsibility that comes from driving on our roads,” she said.

“Experience is the key here,” Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Tim Frith said. “It’s like a reckless-abandonment attitude. I hear it’s an adrenalin rush. They’re not doing drugs so it’s an intoxicating high to drive these vehicles at these speeds.”

Drag racing hasn’t been addressed by the Legislature for a few years, Skidmore said.

“Most members of the Legislature think about when they were young,” she said. “It’s a much different world out there and the streets are much more unforgiving.”

Those streets are lined with tears and regrets.

“I wish to God I turned around and never agreed to buy the car for him,” Vivarttas said. But “he would have found another way. He would have done it because it was just part of him.”

The march of their children’s friends through the door, the image of their smiling children and all they left behind at a time they are supposed to just start living is what keeps parents clenching in pain.

“If he was here, he would say how sorry he was,” Nannariello said. “Until the day I die, I’m always going to feel somewhere that I let him down.”

Street racer dies in crash as rival speeds into night

By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 26, 2007

The 18-year-old mechanic from Boynton Beach lost control of the 2005 Dodge SRT4 during a street race with a silver Ford Mustang west of West Palm Beach, friends and family members said.

After the wreck, the Mustang sped away, they said.

Vivarttas’ girlfriend, 18-year-old Marybeth Imbres, said she sneaked out of her Delray Beach home late Tuesday to join Vivarttas at the Taco Bell at Military Trail and Forest Hill Boulevard, where street races often originate.

Just after midnight Tuesday, in the parking lot where kids get together and call each other out – “You’ve got nothing” – Vivarttas arranged to take on the silver Mustang, his girlfriend said. He was a regular in the underground racing circuit, which changed locations to stay ahead of the police, Imbres said.

“I was supposed to go in the car with him,” she said.

But before this race, Vivarttas pulled her aside.

“Stay here this time,” he told her. “I’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

Imbres was angry. She hated when he raced but insisted on riding with him.

She hated that he refused to wear a seat belt, saying he liked to “feel free” and didn’t like to feel “tied down,” but most of all, she feared that something could happen to him on the road.

So when he told her he didn’t want her in the car, she stormed off, leaving her purse on his passenger seat.

Vivarttas and the other racer roared out of sight.

Moments later, a guy she had seen talking to the driver of the Mustang hurried over.

“Your boyfriend just got in a car accident,” he said.

She jumped in a friend’s car and they searched the race route before she saw the flashing blue lights, the highway patrol troopers, the wreckage of a little black car.

She ran toward the crash site but an officer stopped her.

“You can’t go over there,” he told her.

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She said she needed to know whether her boyfriend was hurt. The car was so mangled, she couldn’t tell whether it was his.

The officer told her he couldn’t help her. “All I know,” he said, “is that there’s a female’s purse in the passenger seat.”

Later, the official crash report would read like this: Vivarttas was speeding east on Forest Hill Boulevard toward West Palm Beach when he hit a curb near Anderson Lane. His Dodge veered onto the sidewalk, knocked down a street sign, spun into a chain-link fence and rolled into a vacant lot.

Vivarttas was thrown from the car, most likely from the driver-side window, his friends said. He landed facedown in the grass, next to the car he loved. He died where he lay.

Vivarttas, who worked as a mechanic and detailer at JR Watersports in Boynton Beach, loved to draw. He was always sketching scenes from the animated series Dragon Ball Z. He loved music and would burn a new CD every day, friends said. Two years ago, he won first place in the novice division of a wakeboarding contest in Fort Lauderdale.

But his passion was his car. He had been working on the fuel system just this week. It was faster than ever, his girlfriend said.

Vivarttas got his driver license in August 2005, two weeks after his 17th birthday, state records show. His father, Edward, co-signed for the Dodge SRT4 in September. Since then, Vivarttas had received two speeding tickets, one for driving 108 mph in a 70-mph zone, records show.

Vivarttas’ girlfriend said he liked the speed and competitiveness of street racing. It is especially popular on Forest Hill, Lake Worth Road and U.S. 441, said Lt. Tim Frith of the Florida Highway Patrol.

At least two people have died in street races in Palm Beach County in the past year, Frith said.

“It’s about the adrenaline. That’s what they’ll tell you,” Frith said. “They sense that they’re invincible.”

When Vivarttas’ father showed up 30 minutes after the crash, Imbres heard officers tell him his son was dead. The elder Vivarttas was too upset to talk Wednesday afternoon.

“What I want is someone to come forward,” said Stephen Vivarttas’ mother, Cathy. “This guy caused this and then didn’t even have the decency to come back.

“My son, he was the first bright spot of my life other than this one,” she said, caressing the cheeks of Stephen’s 10-year-old brother, Michael. She pushed him into their little yellow house on Northwest Seventh Court in Boynton Beach, where friends gathered to mourn.

Among them was Justin Cox, 18, whose pride in his car, a black Chevy Caprice, rivaled Vivarttas.’ His mother standing nearby, Cox reluctantly admitted to sometimes joining Vivarttas at the underground car meets. Hearing that, Jackee Cox said, gave her goose bumps.

“This is a reminder of the consequences of drag racing,” she said. “They need to think of their parents. They need to think of the ones they’re going to hurt.”

Anyone with information should call the Florida Highway Patrol at (561) 540-3318 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-TIPS.

Florida prosecutor fights off shark

Florida prosecutor fights off shark

STUART, Fla., March 13 (UPI)

An assistant prosecutor in Florida who fought off a shark during a surfing break plans to get back in the water once his right arm heals.

“I might be a little apprehensive at first,” Assistant Palm Beach County State Attorney Adam McMichael told the Palm Beach Post. “But who gets bitten twice?”

McMichael was about 40 yards off Tiger Shores Beach on Hutchinson Island when he fell from his board and felt something grab his right arm. He used his left hand to punch at the shark, and it let go.

Another surfer noticed that McMichael was in trouble and towed him in. One beachgoer fastened a tourniquet on his arm, and another man who had a first-aid kit bandaged him.

“No one seemed to know who he was. He just came in, did it and left,” McMichael said. “He saved me from losing a lot of blood.”

Doctors at Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart spent two hours reattaching veins and tendons, although they said the shark, luckily, missed everything major. McMichael is expected to make a full recovery except for the loss of some feeling in his right hand.