A Connecticut man accused of killing a 1-year-old girl during a hit-and-run crash in Hartford was driving a car with an illegally-tinted windshield when he struck the toddler the night of June 3, according to court documents.
Hartford resident Melvin Daniels, 30, is facing charges of second-degree manslaughter, evading responsibility involving death and having an illegally-tinted windshield in connection with the death of 19-month-old Camila Elizabeth Ramirez-Carcamo, Hartford police said previously.
Camila died in a hospital after wandering out the door of Top Kat Laundromat and onto New Britain Avenue where she was hit by a car, police said previously. Daniels is accused of striking her with his BMW 328xi and then fleeing the scene, but court documents paint a clearer picture of what factors may have led to the crash.
Security video from the night of the crash shows Camila leaving the laundromat through its motion-activated doors wearing a dark-colored dress, according to court documents. She made it to the center line of the road before she was struck.
Officers responded to the crash around 10:55 p.m. and found her in a pool of blood, according to court documents. She was rushed to Connecticut Children’s Hospital, but was later declared dead.
Investigators identified Daniels and his BMW through traffic camera and security video footage, according to court documents.
These videos purportedly show the BMW’s driver navigating normally before hitting Camila but driving away from the scene “erratically” after hitting her.
The car does not stop after the crash. It can be seen going through red lights and stop signs and swerving into the opposite lane of traffic to get around other cars.
“Based on my training and experience, sudden erratic behavior immediately after an incident such as this indicates that accused Daniels was aware of what had occurred and was attempting to create quick and immediate distance between himself and the scene,” Hartford Det. Lane Bradford wrote in Daniels’ arrest warrant.
After reviewing the footage of the crash, Hartford police went looking for the BMW at Daniels’ known addresses, but came up empty, according to court documents.
They then notified other law enforcement agencies that they were looking for the car, and about 20 minutes before midnight, the BMW was detected by a plate reader in New Haven.
The next morning, officers found Daniels sleeping in the BMW in the parking lot of a New Haven McDonald’s, according to court documents. Investigators soon noticed that the BMW had front-end damage, including a missing front grill that matched debris found at the scene of the crash.
They also discovered that all the car’s windows had been tinted past the point of legality using a film that would typically be applied after purchasing a vehicle, according to court documents. In particular, the car’s front windshield was so tinted that let in approximately 15% less light than is legally allowed in Connecticut.
“Knowingly operating a vehicle at night with a windshield that only allows 18% of all light to pass through creates an unjustifiable risk that the operator will be unable to safely and clearly view everything within their path of travel, leading to a situation such as this,” Bradford wrote.
Officers interviewed Daniels, who said he’d left work in New Hartford around 10:15 p.m. the night before and drove directly to his cousin’s house in New Haven, according to court documents. He denied having been in Hartford the previous night and said the damage to his car was from a prior accident.
Having concluded that Daniels’ account of his whereabouts on the evening of June 3 was in conflict with video and physical evidence, on Monday, Hartford police obtained a warrant for his arrest, according to court documents. Daniels turned himself in later that day, and at his arraignment later that day, his bond was set at $300,000.
Daniels did not enter a plea during his arraignment, according to The Hartford Courant. He posted bail the same day and was released on the conditions that he wear a GPS monitor, refrain from driving and be confined to his home except for work, medical appointments and meetings with his lawyer. His next court date is scheduled for July 15.
