Florida
Florida mother Destiny Byassee killed when fake airbags ‘detonated like a grenade,’ lawsuit alleges
A young Florida mother was killed last year when her car’s counterfeit airbag “detonated like a grenade,” according to a lawsuit.
Destiny Byassee’s used 2020 Chevy Malibu passed through multiple conmen before its fake emergency airbags deployed in a June frontal collision, causing a blast that “shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout” the car, her family alleges.
“Several fragments from the blast struck Ms. Byassee in the face, head, and neck, ultimately killing her,” stated the complaint, obtained by Law & Crime.
The 22-year-old “was a mother of two young children and had her entire life ahead of her,” attorney John Morgan, who is also representing the family, said in a news release.
According to the lawsuit, Byassee bought the doomed sedan from DriveTime, a national used car company, without being given a full history of the car.
The former Enterprise Rent-A-Car car was involved in a devastating September 2022 crash that caused damage that “was so significant that the vehicle should have been classified as a total loss, issued a salvage title, and removed from service,” the lawsuit alleges.
Rather than scrap the vehicle, Enterprise allegedly sold the car to DriveTime through Manheim Auctions, Inc., which bills itself as the largest wholesale automobile auction company in the world.
It was then repaired at Jumbo Automotive in Hollywood, Florida, the complaint continues, claiming that shop owner Haim Levy “purchased counterfeit and non-compliant airbag components” by a Chinese company to replace the Chevrolet factory airbag “and proceeded to install these components into the subject Chevy Malibu.”
Not only were the dangerous fake bags used, but Levy allegedly repaired the deployed seatbelt pretensioner — the part of a complete system that tightens the belt during a crash — incorrectly, but in a cunning way that made it appear to work properly.
Byassee “had no idea that the vehicle had been improperly and illegally repaired,” her family said.
Both the counterfeit airbag and faulty seatbelt pretensioner “were signaled to deploy” during the June 2023 collision, according to the lawsuit.
“However, because the subject Chevy Malibu’s front driver-side seatbelt pretensioner was inoperable, the pretensioner did not deploy as originally designed,” the lawsuit states. “Worse, because the subject Chevy Malibu’s front driver-side airbag system included counterfeit and non-compliant components, the airbag detonated like a grenade and shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout the vehicle cabin.”
The filing pointedly said that photographs depicted the “horrifying event,” including one of the “shredded and blood-soaked front driver-side airbag.”
Cathy King, Byassee’s grandmother, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 6- and 4-year-old children the young woman left behind, as well as her husband and mother.
Byassee “believed she was buying a safe and reliable vehicle, but our lawsuit alleges that several automotive companies worked to skirt the system by repairing what should’ve been a totaled vehicle, all just to make money,” Morgan said in the release.
“Because of that, Ms. Byassee lost her life, and her children will grow up without their mother.”
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial on 14 various counts against the various defendants – including strict liability, negligence and deceptive trade practices.
Neither Enterprise, Manheim, DriveTime nor Jumbo Automotive immediately answered The Post’s request for comment.
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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