Moments before a high-end sports car violently slammed into his vehicle, Joshua David Badell was told by a security guard to relocate the sedan from the southeast Las Vegas parking lot it was parked in.
Badell was sitting on the front passenger seat of his Toyota Camry early Sunday, police said. The guard stepped away, then suddenly saw a lime green 2018 McLaren 570S lose control and come darting into the lot, according to Metro Police.
Badell, 39, didn’t get a chance to move, and died at the scene, police said. The passenger of the sports car was hospitalized with life-threatening head trauma.
Stanley Butler, the driver of the McLaren, which he rented some 18 hours earlier, told police he just left a club, where he only drank “a little bit” of wine, according to his arrest report.
But the smell of alcohol emitted from his breathe and he had “very” bloodshot and watery eyes, police said. Stanley, 29, refused a blood draw, but officers obtained samples through a warrant.
The Washington D.C. resident was booked in absentia on two counts each of DUI and reckless driving, jail logs show. He remained at the Clark County Detention Center.
Butler had rented the car — valued about $250,000 — for 24 hours 10 a.m. Saturday, said Vic Tyagi, the general manager of the Dream Exotics company in Las Vegas.
At 4:12 a.m. Sunday, about six hours before the car was due back, Butler whizzed down Pecos Road at a “high rate of speed” and lost control near East Villa Way, police said.
The excessive speed caused the bottom of the car to hit the pavement, beginning a chain of events that led to the tragedy, police said. The car spun off the road, flying over a curb and entering a shopping center at 3375 Tropicana Avenue, police said.
Police said the impact caused the Camry to slide sideways over a cement curb. The car overturned and flipped as it hit a wall. Its trajectory was estimated at 70 feet, police said.
The McLaren traveled about 550 feet from the time its undercarriage hit the ground until it came to a rest, police said.
Tyagi said he sympathized with the victim’s family, noting that the company was collaborating with Metro.
Exotic car rentals don’t differ much from that of regular vehicles, Tyagi said. Customers must have a valid driver’s license and be fully insured, he said. Renters also have to be 21 or older. Staff checks with insurance companies to make sure they’re eligible to drive an exotic car.
Dream Exotics promotes and encourages safe driving, said Tyagi, who noted the rental company has been in business for four years with a track record of zero injuries and minimal damage to its cars.
Of course, like any other rental company, Tyagi said, Dream Exotics isn’t able to put an employee on the backseat of the cars to monitor that the rules of the road are being obeyed.
“They might be completely qualified, (but) what you’re going to do 10 hours later is a completely different story,” he said about the crash.
The driver “made some very bad decisions, Tyagi said, “It’s terribly sad.”
An obituary published online identified Badell as a native of Greenville, Ohio, where he graduated high school in 1998