Jurors blame Tesla for fatal Florida Keys crash, award victims $242 million

Miami Herald

01-08-2025

A Miami jury on Friday found fault with the Autopilot system of one of the world's most influential electric vehicle makers and awarded the survivors of a horrendous crash in the Florida Keys that left a woman dead and her boyfriend criticially injured, $242.6 million.
The jury needed just seven hours to determine that industry leader Tesla was to pay $200 million in punitive damages and another $42.6 million in damages to the surviving family members of Naibel Benavides Leon, who was killed when she was 22, and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo, 33, who survived but suffered massive internal and external injuries from the accident.
The verdict in Miami federal civil court marked the first time in three attempts over the past three years that jurors found culpability with Tesla's Autopilot system at trial - a historic marker, said attorney Brett Schreiber. As the verdict was read, tears streamed down the faces of family members and plaintiff attorneys who spent three weeks painstakingly making their case about the 2019 accident.
'It's rare when regular people have the opportunity to change the world and this is what this verdict did,' Schreiber said standing next to Angulo and Benavides Leon's family outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson federal courthouse in downtown Miami. 'What Musk has been saying about this technology was as wrong 10 years ago as it is today.'
Other attorneys who tried the case alongside Schrieber and before Miami U.S. District Judge Beth Blooom were Miami's Todd Poses, Adam Boumel and Doug Eaton.
Under a blistering sun outside the courthouse with the heat index over 105 degrees, Angulo - whose entire body was practically shattered during the crash - thanked God, family, doctors and first responders.
'To stand up like this, especially against the richest guy in the world, we did this for Naidel,' he said.
READ MORE: Family of woman slain in 2019 Florida Keys crash blames Tesla autopilot for her death
The decision came at the end of a three-week trial that delved into statements made by Tesla founder Elon Musk over the years concerning the Tesla S's ability to stop itself or veer away from something in its path with little or no driver assistance. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that Tesla falsely claimed its Autopilot system has the ability to stop without the help of drivers.
Tesla's attorneys laid the blame squarely on George McGee, 48, who ran a stop sign at the end of Card Sound Road at 62 miles per hour, well above the 45-mph speed limit, while pressing the pedal and reaching down to the car's floor in search of his dropped cellphone. McGee agreed earlier at a separate trial to pay the families an undisclosed amount in a settlement.
Tesla called Friday's verdict 'wrong' and said it only sets back automotive safety and jeopardizes the industry's ability to develop life-saving technology. They blamed McGee - who jurors found to be two-thirds at fault, but who wasn't involved in the case because of his earlier agreement. And Tesla said it intends to appeal the verdict. McGee also pleaded no contest to a careless driving charge in Monroe County.
'This was never about Autopilot, it was a fiction concocted by plantiffs' lawyers blaming the car when the driver - from day one - admitted and accepted responsibility,' the company said.
The horrendous crash happened just after 9 p.m on April 25, 2019, at the end of Card Sound Road at the north end of Key Largo where the road meets County Road 905. The young couple's Chevy Tahoe was parked on a dirt road on the east side of County Road 905, which leads north to the Ocean Reef Club, where McGee was headed, and south to the Florida Keys.
As McGee approached the three-way stop at the end of Card Sound Road, he dropped his cellphone, looked down and blew through the stop sign and onto the dirt road beyond, hitting the Tahoe so hard it launched Benavides Leon 80 feet into the woods. Video footage shows McGee getting out of his car and tending to Ungulo whose pelvis and jaw bone separated.
They only found Benavides after finding flipflops beneath the truck and about a 10-minute search. At trial it came out that McGee was on the phone preparing for a flight so he and his wife could attend a funeral.
During closing arguments earlier this week, Schreiber told jurors how Musk and other Tesla executives had repeatedly relayed to the public how the Tesla S was a 'self-driving' car and said it was their fault that it became an expectation. Friday, he said outside the courtroom the company pushed a campaign that Tesla was top-of-the-heap technology, but inside the courtroom 'they make it out like it's a jalopy.'
'The Tesla car is a good car,' Schreiber said. 'It's the Autopilot that will kill you.'
Tesla attorneys led by Joel Smith chose not to make any public statements after the verdict other than referring to the company's statement. During closing arguments Thursday, Smith told jurors that if a driver hits the accelerator and the car races above the speed limit, it overrides the Autopilot function.
He said records show McGee was on the phone for 13 minutes, varied speeds in the minutes leading to the crash and harped on how the car's manual says drivers should always maintain control of the steering wheel. The attorney cited 2019 federal transportation records that showed 36,500 people died in car accidents in the U.S.
'McGee said under testimony he knew he couldn't be hands-free on Autopilot,' Smith told jurors. 'He's an aggressive driver who dropped his cellphone, and like all the other people, killed someone.'