Atlanta police said a woman had just left her job at a downtown Atlanta strip club and was intoxicated when she hit and killed a 71-year-old man as he crossed a street in the hotel district last month.
She then drove off and got into another crash just 10 minutes later and about 20 miles away in Cobb County, according to officials.
Portia Taylor, 30, of Acworth, was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree vehicular homicide, hit-and-run resulting in death and driving under the influence. She is accused of killing Michael Crabtree of Alabama, who had been in town for work May 18, according to his obituary.
Crabtree, known to loved ones as “TC,” died at the scene.
“Though TC’s life was cut short by a senseless accident, his legacy of faith, love and unwavering dedication will continue to shine through the lives he touched,” his obituary read.
Court records do not list an attorney for Taylor. She remains in the Fulton County jail without bond.
The fatal incident happened just before sunrise around 6:26 a.m. near the intersection of Peachtree and Baker streets. The area is across from the Carnegie Library Monument and next to the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.
According to Atlanta police and Fulton County Magistrate Court records, investigators tracked Taylor’s 2013 black Nissan Altima to the Candyland strip club, a couple of blocks east of the crash site.
Taylor was driving “at a high rate of speed” and didn’t slow down because the traffic light was green at the Peachtree Street intersection, reports state. As she approached, Crabtree was already in the middle of the road while crossing about 10 feet away from the marked crosswalk, investigators detailed in the reports.
The collision damaged the left-side front bumper of Taylor’s car and knocked off her driver-side mirror, according to the police report. But she allegedly continued toward the Downtown Connector and then drove north into Cobb County.
Within the next 10 minutes, at 6:35 a.m., Taylor was involved in another hit-and-run crash on I-75 in Cobb nearly 20 miles away, investigators said they later learned.
In Cobb Magistrate Court records, police say Taylor was approaching the Canton Road Connector from the I-75 Expressway when she hit a Ford F-150 with her right-side bumper, causing the truck to spin and hit a guardrail.
It’s not clear from the reports if the truck driver was injured.
Taylor continued driving north for about 3 miles before getting off the interstate at Barrett Parkway and parking at a Shell gas station near the exit, Cobb records state. The location is across from the Town Center at Cobb mall.
According to Cobb police, Taylor was sitting in her heavily damaged and disabled vehicle when they found her. They located an open bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequila in her passenger seat floorboard, less than an ounce of marijuana and two ecstasy pills, officers detailed in her arrest warrant.
She acknowledged the first collision when speaking to Cobb officers, the Atlanta warrant noted, but said she’d “been hit twice by an unknown vehicle while driving home from work.”
Cobb police took her into custody within an hour of the second crash on charges of DUI, failure to stop or render aid, felony drug possession and an open container violation, according to online jail records.
She was released on a $6,500 bond by 2:30 a.m. the next day.
On Wednesday, just over three weeks later, Atlanta police learned Taylor was working again at Candyland. Officers arrested her on the Atlanta hit-and-run charges as she exited the building.
Crabtree’s family held a visitation a few weeks ago, with a memorial service planned for an unspecified later date.
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