'Miami Beach Party Princess’ Charged With Running Over & Killing Popular Chef While Driving Drunk
Feb. 16 2013, Published 5:59 p.m. ET
A self-proclaimed Miami 'party princess' is facing decades behind bars after prosecutors charged her with striking and killing a well-known Miami chef, while allegedly driving drunk and leaving the scene with pieces of his flesh still attached to her Dodge Charger.
Karlie Tomica, 20, who described herself as a ‘Miami Beach Party Princess Livin’ the Dream’ on her Twitter page, is accused of driving drunk and running over South Beach chef Stefano Riccioletti, 49, on January 28 outside of the hotel where he worked.
On Friday Tomica looked distraught as she appeared in a Miami-Dade courtroom to face four charges, including DUI manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, DUI property damage, and resisting arrest without violence.
According to prosecutors, “The victim was thrown from the impact and landed broken and bleeding near the entrance to a hotel.”
When the the accident happened, Riccioletti -- a married father of two -- was leaving his job at the Shore Club, NBC Miami reports.
Initially, Tomica was only charged with leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
But after police received toxicology reports showed she was allegedly drunk, they added the additional charges.
The eyewitness who placed the initial 911 call yesterday in court described Tomica as being "really drunk" at the time.
According to court documents presented by prosecutors, another eyewitness tried to get Tomica to stop, and when she wouldn't, followed her car and also called 911. Tomica "actively evaded and even made U-turns to attempt to lose the car following her."
Instead, she drove to her apartment building, and handed the keys to her car to the building's valet.
It was, says the prosecutors, a "battered, bloody and flesh smattered vehicle."
Cops arrived at the building only minutes later, and say they found the self-proclaimed party girl, smelling of alcohol and slurring her words.
Tomica faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charges and was being held on a $77,000 bond.
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"She needs to feel the pain that we are feeling," Riccioletti's wife, Patrizia Pesce, told CBS Miami. "She really hit him hard. And she destroyed him. It wasn’t easy to see him like that."
