Salt Lake County prosecutors charged a 21-year-old man with manslaughter Wednesday, nearly a year after police said he struck and killed a Draper pedestrian who told him to slow down on his motorcycle.
Nicholas Broderick David Smith also faces charges of speeding, failing to operate a vehicle on the right side of the roadway, and operating a motorcycle without a valid license, according to court documents.
On April 18, 2022, officers were called to a neighborhood street in Draper, where they found James Mair lying in the road surrounded by people.
His wife told police that she and Mair had been walking along the road when they saw Smith “speeding through the neighborhood” on his motorcycle, documents state. She said Mair told the man to slow down.
Ten minutes later, she said, they heard Smith speeding on his motorcycle again. She said she saw Mair take one step from the curb and into the road to again tell Smith to slow down, “and the next thing I knew he was thrown 30 feet into the air” as the motorcycle rammed into him, she told authorities. “It all happened so fast.”
Both Mair and Smith were taken to a hospital, though Smith survived his injuries. Mair’s wife and a friend told police that when they saw Smith at the hospital, he held up his hand in a “peace sign” and said, “‘Sup homies.”
Mair suffered two skull fractures, a brain bleed, brain swelling and “severe lower extremity injuries.” He died from his injuries the next morning.
When Draper police detectives spoke to Smith in the hospital, he told officers he couldn’t remember what happened. Blood tests indicated he had THC in his system when he was arrested.
Officers at the scene confirmed that Smith’s motorcycle was not registered, that he didn’t have a motorcycle endorsement on his license, and that he didn’t have insurance.
Investigators determined that Smith had been going 47 mph in a 25 mph zone, and that if he’d been going the speed limit, he would’ve had time to stop and avoid the crash.
According to the charging document, Smith was known for speeding through the neighborhood on his motorcycle and several people had complained about it.
On Thursday, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill released a statement about why charges were filed nearly a year after the fatal crash.
“Investigation timeline and case complexity both affect how long it takes for charges to be filed,” Gill said. “We do our due diligence and sometimes that leads to us taking longer to file charges.”
Smith’s initial appearance in court is scheduled for March 6.
