Stripper Who Struck and Killed 3 Teens Had Bad Driving Record and Was Driving Drunk

A South Florida stripper who killed three teenage boys when her car sped into a sidewalk in North Miami last weekend, had been driving while drunk.
Stripper Who Struck and Killed 3 Teens Had Bad Driving Record and Was Driving Drunk
A stock photo of a police car. Holly Kellum/File Photo/Epoch Times
Isabel van Brugen
Updated:

A South Florida stripper who killed three teenage boys when her car sped into a sidewalk in North Miami last weekend, had been driving while drunk and had been cited for 42 traffic infractions since 2008, including seven previous crashes, according to records.

Mariam Coulibaly, 31, who was driving her SUV with a suspended license, lost control of her vehicle and sped into a sidewalk near a bus stop in North Miami, plowing down three teenage soccer players on May 25, the Miami Herald reported.

It is believed the driver was traveling down Northeast 125th Street at 13th Avenue at speeds of at least 60 mph.

At the time of the fatal accident, at around 5:22 a.m. local time, the teens were on their way to catch a bus for the ENIGMA soccer tournament in Weston.

The three boys, Gideon Desir, 13; Lens Desir, 15; and Richecarde Dumay, 17, were members of Little Haiti Football Club—a local team for at-risk, low-income youth— and were killed on impact.

The 31-year-old driver suffered a shattered hip among other injuries, and was sent to Aventura Hospital.

She claims she was unaware she had injured anyone in the accident until she woke up in the hospital.

Speaking to the Miami Herald from her hospital bed, Coulibaly said, “I’m very much depressed about everything going on.

“I came from a blackout. When I woke up I didn’t even know that I hurt people.”

It is believed that before the crash, the driver had been working at a Biscayne Boulevard strip club near North Miami, named The Body.

Initial toxicology tests showed Coulibaly was driving while drunk at the time of the horrific crash. Some four hours after the fatal accident, results indicated she was drunk by almost double the legal limit.

Sources also told the Miami Herald she smelled of alcohol and had told hospital staff she had been “partying.”

Coulibaly was later arrested on charges of DUI manslaughter.

Records show the 31-year-old has been running into trouble on the roads for years. Since 2008, Coulibaly received 35 infractions in Miami-Dade County alone, and seven in Broward.

In 2013, Coulibaly was fined over $11,000 after she was sued by a woman named Catherine Jean when she sped into a Jeep Cherokee which then hit Jean’s car from behind in Dania Beach. She was cited for speeding, however, she failed to respond to the lawsuit, according to the Miami Herald.

Two years later, she was involved in four traffic accidents in Miami-Dade—two of them were hit and runs.

On Feb. 14, 2015, Coulibaly hit another car while driving on the Florida Turnpike in Miami-Dade and, and fled the scene, allegedly “out of panic.” Just days later, on Feb. 18, 2015, she was involved in another hit and run in Miami Gardens, and was ordered to traffic school.

According to reports, the woman hadn’t been involved in an accident since December 2015, but received five red-light camera tickets in Miami-Dade, of which four of them were dismissed.

However, speaking to the Miami Herald, her family said she had been involved in an accident in 2017, but the publication could not locate records the crash.

Her brother-in-law said she was left with a concussion and broken bones after she hit a bus in Miami-Dade, and remained in the Jackson hospital for weeks.

“We are feeling bad about those kids. We are very, very sorry,” he said, referring to teens Gideon and Lens Desir, and Richecarde Dumay.

“We are praying for the kids and the entire family. It’s not an easy situation. We know what it’s like because we were in that situation two years ago when we almost lost her.”

Isabel van Brugen
Isabel van Brugen
Reporter
Isabel van Brugen is an award-winning journalist. She holds a master's in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.
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