BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS—A Green Cove Springs man turned himself into Clay deputies after a judge issued an arrest warrant for him on a charge of vehicular homicide.
Dustin Cartwright Johnson, 23, was charged in the Aug. 16, 2021, death of Keystone Heights resident Robert Dean Brown.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol crash report, Johnson ran a red light at the corner of State Roads 16 and 21 around 7:50 p.m. and t-boned Brown’s GMC Yukon.
Johnson was driving an F-250 and was hauling vehicles on a trailer.
“Witness accounts and dash cam footage confirm that (Johnson) was traveling at a high rate of speed approaching the intersection,” an FHP investigator wrote in a crash report. “Additionally, witnesses and the dash cam footage confirm (Johnson) entered the intersection when the traffic signal for east and westbound State Road 16 were a steady red-light indicator.”
The investigator added that through crush damage estimates, roadway evidence, and crash scene measurements, he determined Johnson was driving a minimum of 71 mph at the time of the collision when the posted speed limit was 45.
Brown, 58, was the only occupant of the GMC and was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. Johnson had three passengers in his F-250. The Green Cove Springs man was also cited for failure to wear a seat belt, failure to secure a 17-year-old passenger in a seat belt and failure to stop at a red light resulting in a fatality.
None of the occupants in either vehicle were ejected.
