Hollywood man pleads guilty in drunk driving accident that killed boy | News

“We all loved spoiling him, and life was too quiet without him,” she said of Jaxson Bennett.

A metal rod pierced the foot of one of the brothers. Other injuries suffered by the brothers included a broken chest, a facial fracture, eye injuries, loss of vision and nerve damage. Bozarth said one of the brothers suffered minor injuries.

Court records show the Bennetts received at least $1 million from two civil lawsuits. Court records show that approximately $750,000 came from The Pitt’s alcohol liability insurance.

Bozarth said Heyward, who suffered a broken knee, mixed psychiatric drugs with alcohol that evening.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2020 following a mental health crisis at a tire shop, after which a family member and police escorted him to the hospital, Drew Carroll, Heyward’s lawyer, said in court. Carroll said he struggled to take his medications over the following years and his condition continued to worsen. But he was taking them at the time of the accident.

Bozarth said Heyward had a previous conviction for armed robbery in 1996, when he was 20 years old. He then worked for 23 years in Charleston County at the Bees Ferry Landfill in West Ashley as a heavy machinery operator. Carroll said that aside from writing a few bad checks, he has had few legal problems.

Jefferson said people miss subtle signs of developing schizophrenia, which the National Institute of Mental Health says can begin to manifest in the late teens.

“I suspect they’ve been bubbling since high school in a way most people would miss,” she said.

Carroll said Heyward pleaded guilty to arson with intent to defraud the insurance company a year before the fatal crash and was due to his mental illness. While driving, he lit a rag on fire and placed it on the dashboard, noting that he loved the car and didn’t need the money at the time, he said. Heyward admitted to police that he intentionally set the fire and then filed a claim for compensation, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The statement indicated that his insurance company was investigating another claim he made involving a 2017 car fire.