MIAMI – The brother of the chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe was arrested after a head-on crash that killed two people.
On Thursday night, Thomas D. Cypress, 54, was charged with two counts of DUI manslaughter. The Florida Highway Patrol said it tested Cypress' blood twice after the wreck. One test showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.249 percent while the other said his blood-alcohol level was 0.202 percent, FHP said.
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FHP spokesman Pat Santangelo said Cypress was driving a Toyota Tundra pickup truck at about 7 p.m. when it collided with a Chevrolet Cobalt about six miles west of Krome Avenue.
According to the crash report, the Tundra crossed into the eastbound lanes and hit the Cobalt head-on.
The two people inside the car, who were both adults, died. Cypress was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was in serious condition Thursday. He is expected to recover.
Cypress is the younger brother of longtime Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Billy Cypress, Local 10's Glenna Milberg reported.
Court records show that Thomas Cypress' driver's license is suspended because of a DUI arrest last summer in Davie, for which he is due in court next month.
According to the police report from that incident, officers stopped Thomas Cypress on Stirling Road and registered breathalyzer results showing that his blood-alcohol level was 0.255 percent, more than three times the legal limit.
Thomas Cypress had already had two other DUI arrests in Miami-Dade County, one with reckless driving in 2004. That case was dismissed. The other arrest was in 1997, when he pleaded no contest and paid a fine but lost his license for six months.
Investigators found beer cans in the vicinity of the crash.
"There was a debris field of probably about 100 yards. The vehicles came to rest approximately 50 yards apart. In the vicinity of the pickup truck, there were some beer cans and broken beer bottles. Right now, that's part of our investigation, to determine which vehicle those came out of," said Lt. Pat Santangelo of FHP.
Police said the two people who died in the crash were a retired couple from Maryland who had rented the Cobalt for their trip to Florida. The two former teachers were crisscrossing the Everglades when they died in the crash.
The Miccosukee Tribe declined to comment.