DUI manslaughter charges have been dropped against Jabari Kemp over a deadly Florida crash that killed five people in 2013.
Both state experts and defense attorneys have questioned the validity of the blood samples drawn hours after the crash. Still, prosecutors are moving ahead on the five charges of vehicular manslaughter, The Associated Press reports.
The issue stemmed from a discrepancy in the samples, which defense attorney Leonard Feuer said would indicate that the 22-year-old would have to have been smoking a large amount of marijuana while in the hospital after the crash, notes the Palm Beach Post. He said there were three possibilities, that the blood was mislabeled, the test was inaccurate or it was not Kemp's.
Without the marijuana charges, prosecutors will have a tougher time arguing that Kemp was criminally reckless when he slammed into a car on the exit ramp in Riviera Beach, which resulted in the deaths of five people inside the car, including three teens.
Ahead of the accident, he had been pulled over by police and despite the officer not finding any drugs on the driver or in his car, he still thought he had been smoking marijuana recently.
There is a hearing scheduled for November and Kemp is currently on house arrest ahead of a trial.
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