Jamar Smith - DUI

[tornado]

Blood alcohol level 0.17

"Rietz said from reviewing the reports compiled by UI police, Smith and Carlwell had been drinking beer and tequila earlier that evening at a woman's apartment in the College Fields complex in Savoy where Smith lives.

Sometime after 11 p.m., the two left in Smith's 1996 Lexus and were headed north on South First Street in Champaign when Smith left the 2000 block of South First Street, north of the UI Employees Credit Union. Tire tracks left in the snow show he crossed the southbound lanes and struck a tree, a police report said.

Rietz said Smith then drove the car, badly damaged on the passenger side, back to the College Fields complex at the southwest corner of First Street and Curtis Road.

"There were two girls in the parking lot who saw the damaged car pull in the parking lot, saw a tall man in UI sweats get out and go inside. They saw an unconscious individual in the car. They then saw the tall man come back out with someone else, approach the car, then both went back in and the young women called 911," Rietz said."

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/02/20/uis_smith_charged_with_diu_leaving_accident_scene

http://www.week.com/Story.aspx?type=ln&NStoryID=56911

http://www.wandtv.com/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=77212&RequestTimeout=500

[bert notorius]

Why would they only test for alcohol? Is that some kind of legal thing?

[Dubl R 1]

This doesn't sound good at all.

[MacabreMob]

This doesn't sound good at all.

Yea?

IlliniBoard might be on meltdown. A lot of Illini fans might be on suicide watch.

[houstontxbrave]

I find the fact that he went to his apartment, where others were apparently including other basketball players and no one thought it would be a good idea to call an ambulance.

I would be very interested to learn what phone calls were made from all phones in that apartment from the time Smith arrived to the time medical people showed up.

The lack of calls to the anyone in a medical field really shows poor judgement on of course Smiths part but of those other individuals who were in the apartment where he went too.

Could others be held Negligent?

[squirrel]

Chances are he's done at Illinois, there will be a settlement, and then he will be looking for another place to finish his eligibility.

Kansas State, DePaul, and Bradley would be the obvious early thoughts. . .

[houstontxbrave]

He has 2 years of eligiblity left. He would have to sit for one year to transfer and if he has to do any jail time that time would cut into his 5 years to play 4.

He seems right now a perfect candidate for SIUE, Quincy or any DII level or below school.

It might be difficult for Smith to find a DI home simply because of the NCAA time clock how it runs.

[DannyCooksey]

Not sure Jamar Smith is worth the trouble. He is a good albeit inconsistent shooter. I think he's average at best as a player.
I was never impressed.

Leaving the scene was his undoing in my opinion. That's the decision that cost him.

[DUBulldog]

Re: Truth is finally being revealed, Jamar Smith - DUI

Blood alcohol level 0.17

Not only was his level more than twice the legal limit.....but that level was drawn at least 90 minutes after the accident. That means it's likely that his level was over 0.2 at the time of the crash.

From the pjstar:

About 90 minutes later, police located Smith and transported him to Carle, where he was treated for a minor concussion and released, Rietz said. Smith submitted to blood testing.

Also, according to the article, Smith thought Carlwell was dead.

[ER3]

Leaving the scene of the accident was horrible decision #1.
But to me the worst part of all of this is that once he left the accident scene and made it back home, he then decided to leave Carlwell unconscious in his car and go inside...he then came back outside with another friend to look at Carlwell, and returned inside...with Carlwell still unconscious in the passenger seat of his car. And not once during all of this did Jamar or anyone else that was in Jamar's apartment decide that calling 911, an ambulance, or help of any kind might be the right thing to do to help Carlwell...
That, to me, is the worst part of all of this...I hope for Jamar's sake there are details here that haven't come out yet that will help fill in some of these blanks...because every reported version of his actions (or lack of actions on his part...) once he got back to his apartment are pretty appalling, IMO.

[alczervik75]

hmm

I definitely wouldn't be shocked to see Jamar settle at Bradley assuming no jail time. If he only gets probation, and the facts come out a little better than they appear, he'll most likely get a shot somewhere, perhaps here.

[patrick_o'brian]

I don't see him getting a shot here. That's just not what you want. Maybe ICC with Tony WY, but I just don't see it here at BU. Me and some buddies were talking about this on Sat., We can't imagine ever doing this. Leaving your buddy for basically DEAD, just because you're scared to face the music. It's almost an unbelievable turn of events. I can't even fathom doing this and we used to get drunk and get into accidents albeit usually on gravel roads and we would never just leave the other guy out to dry just because we were trying to save our own a**es this is too crazy and he should be let go by Illinois, but we all know they tolerate anything down there. This should have been addressed to the team when the SENIOR CAPTAIN got a DUI earlier this year, but it wasn't and now it has culminated into a "near-death" experience. I hope that they learn from this situation and do something down there, because what would have happened had Carlwell died? Vehicular Manslaughter? Reckless Homicide? DUI is bad enough the other two could have destroyed 2 lives. This is something that needs to be addressed NOW!

[tornado]

Getting back to the actual issue of Jamar and the DUI....

I have a whole lot of problems with what's going on and what's being said.....

First...
Jamar is guilty of:
-underage drinking
-driving while intoxicated
-reckless driving
-improper lane usage
-damage to private property
-leaving the scene of an accident
-failure to render proper aid to an injured accident victim
-failure to report the accident
-criminal negligence in leaving Carlwell unconscious in the parking lot
-and even possibly more such as supplying alcohol to underage drinkers, hiding evidence, etc..

But he has only been charged with DUI, improper lane usage, and leaving the scene.

Then two other things being reported are also quite troubling.

--"A number of other team members were gathered at the apartment, (Champaign County State's Attorney) Julia Rietz said. "
--an Illini assistant coach was called by Jamar Smith from the apartment and the assistant coach arrived at the complex, all without anyone in the apartment or associated with the Illini ever calling police or 911.
Does this not smack of horrible negligence and obvious attempt to keep this hush and cover it up?

Certainly the "illini assistant coach" who arrived would have been well aware that several other team members were there, AND would have been aware that there was drinking and alcohol as well as underage students involved. The Journal Star reports that the Illini assistant even drove Jamar to the hospital for the alcohol blood test, so surely they knew thw whole story, yet only Jamar is suspended, and the rest of the full Illini team continues to practice and play as if nothing happened and everyone is innocent.

[smitty]

What would be the problem with Illinois just coming clean and telling the whole story? How many other players were at this party? How many others were drinking illegally? Isn't that against team rules? Why didn't any of the other team members call for help? Why such secrecy? It smacks of collusion to cover up this whole thing. I am an Illinois fan and have been to several games this year and every year. But this whole thing stinks to high heaven from top to bottom there.

[tornado]

Ultimately facts will come out, then maybe it will cause some heads to roll....