An unlicensed Florida driver who ran over six young children, killing three of them, made a final plea for sympathy in court before he was sentenced to 73 years in prison.
On December 27, 2021, then-27-year-old Sean Greer swerved his vehicle onto a sidewalk in Wilton Manors, a city just north of Fort Lauderdale, to get around a merging bus that had just dropped someone off.
His 2009 gray Honda Accord slammed into six children. Five-year-old Paris Jones and six-year-old Andrea Fleming were killed instantly.
A third little girl, nine-year-old Laziyah ‘Minnie’ Stukes, died from her injuries nearly seven months later in July 2022. Greer fled immediately after the crash without calling authorities or trying to help the children.
The three other children he hit, Audre Fleming, Draya Fleming and Johnathan Carter, were relatives of the victims and survived their injuries. The group had been on their way from a park to a family member’s house nearby.
In February, Greer pleaded no contest to 15 felony charges, including three counts each of vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a crash involving death and leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury.
He originally faced a slew of 26 charges, according to Broward County court records. Seven of those charges stemmed from him driving with a license that was suspended in 2016.
At his sentencing hearing on Thursday, Greer, now 32, apologized to the families of his victims. ‘I do want you to understand, I was on my way home from Walmart with a bag of groceries. In no way, shape or form did I wake up that morning and said I’m gonna go run some kids down,’ he said.
Sean Greer, 32, has been sentenced to 73 years in prison for running over six children in Florida in 2021, killing three of them. He is pictured apologizing in court
‘I’m so sorry. What I need you to understand it was just an accident. I was on probation for burglary… I want you to know I’m sorry. I just want you all to have peace,’ Greer continued per the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The killer driver’s sister, Jessica Greer, appeared in court over Zoom and attempted to build sympathy for her brother.
‘He was willing to take his life that day,’ she said before explaining that the siblings had a difficult upbringing.
‘By the time I was six we were in the foster care system because my mom was in jail and my father was nowhere to be found,’ the sister said.
But the families of the victims were unfazed and called for their children’s killer to be punished harshly.
‘No one cares about your upbringing,’ said Devera Stukes, the mother of nine-year-old Laziyah ‘Minnie’ Stukes, according to WPLG. ‘Our children were not on Powerline Road but on the sidewalk.’
‘I was going to forgive you, man, but I can’t. I can’t forgive after what you took from me,’ said Gregory Holcomb, grandfather of six-year-old Andrea Fleming.
‘You killed those kids, my baby, and you left them in the street,’ said Tyricka Williams, the mother of Andrea Fleming.
Greer’s defense asked that their client be sentenced to 35 years in prison, while prosecutors asked for a sentence of at least 48 years.
After hearing both sides, Judge Andrew Siegel sentenced Greer to a dozen concurrent 48-year terms for the leaving the scene of a fatal accident and vehicular homicide charges.
He also sentenced Greer to a consecutive 25-year term for one of his leaving the scene charges, for a total of 73 years behind bars.
Greer had also been sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating probation on the burglary case he mentioned in court. That sentence will also run concurrently with the other terms.
Siegel said he believed Greer’s apology and that his regret was legitimate, though the judge determined that was not enough to warrant a lighter sentence.
