11-04-2025
Student walking to school killed by classmate's dad, FL cops say. He's sentenced
A dad dropped his daughter off at high school, then he hit one of her classmates at nearly 75 mph and fled the scene as the 18-year-old died, Florida authorities said.
Edgardo Joel Rosado Perez, 42, was charged with vehicular homicide, failure to remain at the scene of a crash involving a death and leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage, Polk County records show.
The Lakeland Ledger reported he pleaded guilty following the incident that claimed the life of 18-year-old Zachariah Clabough and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
'I would like to apologize before the family,' Perez said in court through an interpreter, according to WTVT. 'It was not intentional. It was a bad decision that I made in my life.'
McClatchy News reached out to Perez's attorney for comment April 11 but did not immediately receive a response.
'I want Zachariah to come home, but he can't because he's dead,' said his mom, Barbara Runyon, WTVT reported. 'He's dead because Edgardo killed him.'
Perez had just dropped off his daughter at Bartow Senior High School the morning of March 27, 2024, when he got into a minor crash, McClatchy News previously reported.
Florida Highway Patrol said he didn't stop after the crash and fled at a high speed while the other driver involved started chasing him.
Clabough was walking to school when Perez blew through a stop sign and hit him at nearly 75 mph as the 18-year-old was crossing the street, according to investigators.
The force of the impact caused Perez's windshield to cave in, and the airbag deployed, state troopers said.
He's accused of not stopping then either.
Investigators said he drove home and parked his Hyundai sedan in the garage to avoid detection, then he took another car to the mall until deputies found him there and arrested him.
Family wrote in Clabough's obituary that some of his interests included Legos and playing guitar.
'Zach was enjoying life like he usually does,' his brother Hunter Clabough said, according to WTVT. 'Going to school, playing video games. He was there for everybody else. Skateboarding. Hanging out.'
Bartow Senior High School's principal, Lance Lawson, said in a statement to McClatchy News that Clabough was 'a quiet, hardworking student who was looking forward to graduation.'
Bartow is about a 40-mile drive east from Tampa.
