Police on Wednesday captured the motorist who was charged nearly a month ago with being extremely drunk and going at least 85 mph when he killed another driver in a collision at a north Minneapolis intersection.
Sylvester T. Vaughn, 40, of Minneapolis was arrested without resistance late Wednesday morning in the block where he lives and booked into the Hennepin County jail in connection with the crash that killed 22-year-old Josiah R. Oakley of Minneapolis on Dec. 11 at N. 42nd and Lyndale avenues.
Vaughn was the subject of a nationwide warrant for his arrest since being charged on Feb. 24 with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide. He remains jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail ahead of a court appearance Thursday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
The criminal complaint said that Vaughn's medical records from North Memorial Health , where he was treated for his injuries from the crash, showed his blood alcohol content soon after the collision was 0.236%, nearly three times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
Also at the time of the crash, Vaughn was driving despite his license having been revoked.
Oakley was a 2019 graduate of Minneapolis Edison High School, where he was on the chess team that won the Minneapolis Public Schools tournament in 2017. He finished second in the individual competition. Oakley also played football for Edison for two seasons, baseball for four seasons and was a member of the band.
According to the complaint against Vaughn:
Around 12:40 a.m., a police officer at Lyndale and 45th avenues spotted Vaughn's Chevy SUV race by seconds before it collided with Oakley's Pontiac SUV at 42nd Avenue. Emergency responders arrived and declared Oakley dead at the scene. The officer removed an injured Vaughn from his SUV, and he was taken to North Memorial.
A State Patrol analysis determined that Vaughn was traveling 85 to 90 mph when he entered the intersection and hit Oakley's vehicle. The speed limit on that stretch of Lyndale is 30 mph.
Vaughn's criminal history in Minnesota includes a conviction in 2019 for drunken driving. In that case, according to court records, he hit another vehicle from behind at a red light in Brooklyn Center. A preliminary breath test at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.19%, more than twice the legal limit. A judge set aside a six-month jail sentence and put Vaughn on probation for two years.
