Judge denies bond in Seminole County fatal crash case after high-speed chase
A judge kept Marquaious Wheaton jailed after a Sanford traffic stop turned into a 35-minute chase and a Casselberry crash that killed Christopher and Tyler Marier.
A Seminole County judge denied bond for Marquaious Wheaton after a Sanford traffic stop turned into a 35-minute chase, a Casselberry crash and the deaths of Christopher and Tyler Marier. Wheaton, 26, faces two counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of third-degree murder or felony murder, fleeing law enforcement and excessive speed.
Deputies tried to stop Wheaton near State Road 417 in Sanford on July 7, 2026, around 11:50 a.m. Instead of a ground pursuit, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office tracked him from above by helicopter while agencies coordinated below. Wheaton kept going at more than 100 mph, ran red lights and weaved through traffic before the chase ended on U.S. 17-92 near Sunnytown Road in Casselberry.
The crash killed the Marier brothers and shut down southbound lanes of U.S. 17-92 for hours as investigators processed the scene. Christopher Marier was a University of Central Florida assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and a former police officer.
Wheaton was on felony probation when the crash happened and was wearing a court-ordered GPS monitor. His record included convictions for robbery with a firearm and witness tampering. He was sentenced in October 2019 to five years in prison, released early in 2023 and later placed on probation, which was extended in 2024.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
