Dallas Driver Gets 15 Years for 88-Mph Crash That Killed Woman Celebrating 70th Birthday

DALLAS - A 33-year-old man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a high-speed crash that killed a 70-year-old woman as she returned from a birthday dinner with her daughter.

A Dallas County jury found Ladarious Devonta Griffin guilty of manslaughter Sept. 3 in the 204th Judicial District Court. The same jury sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The fatal crash happened around 8 p.m. March 20, 2025, on Skillman Street in Dallas.

According to prosecutors, Griffin was traveling 88 mph in a 40-mph zone as Kari Krakowski attempted to make a left turn. Griffin's vehicle struck the passenger side of Krakowski's car, where her mother, Janet Elaine Everett Krakowski, was sitting.

The mother and daughter had gone to dinner to celebrate Janet Krakowski's 70th birthday.

Krakowski suffered critical injuries in the collision. A few days later, Kari Krakowski and her brother made the decision to remove their mother from life support.

Crash reconstruction conducted during the investigation determined Griffin's vehicle was about 565 feet away when Kari Krakowski began making the left turn, prosecutors said. Despite being nearly two football fields away, Griffin's speed rapidly closed that distance before the collision.

At the time of the crash, Griffin was free on bond in two separate family violence cases involving charges of assault family violence by impeding breath and deadly conduct by discharging a firearm, according to prosecutors. Those were pending charges, not convictions.

Prosecutors also presented Griffin's driving history, which included multiple speeding citations and driving with an invalid license.

The Dallas Police Department's Vehicular Crimes Unit investigated the crash.

Dallas County prosecutors Rachel Warner and Priscilla Pelli handled the manslaughter case. DA investigators Ron Cathcart and Eric Knight assisted, with Anna Kubalak providing appellate support.