{"id":239775,"date":"2026-04-21T01:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239775\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:53:08","slug":"civil-trial-over-fatal-tesla-crash-in-fort-lauderdale-resolved-during-jury-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239775\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil trial over fatal Tesla crash in Fort Lauderdale resolved during jury selection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0April 20, 2026 at 9:36 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">There was an abrupt ending on Monday to a lawsuit involving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/04\/20\/jury-selection-begins-in-broward-civil-case-against-tesla-over-2-deaths\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/04\/20\/jury-selection-begins-in-broward-civil-case-against-tesla-over-2-deaths\/\">the families of a deadly, fiery crash that occurred in nearly eight years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Potential jurors were sent home around 1:30 p.m. after the judge in the case said the families had resolved the matter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The case goes back to a crash and a fire that killed 18-year-old\u2019s Edgar Monserratt Martinez and Barrett Riley in May of 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Monserratt Martinez was a front-seat passenger in the 2014 Tesla Model S that Riley was driving at 116 mph in a 30-mph zone in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Riley crashed the Tesla into a wall along Seabreeze Boulevard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In 2022, Riley\u2019s parents claimed Tesla designed the defective batteries that were to blame for the fire that followed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">That lawsuit was dismissed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Riley\u2019s parents also claimed Tesla installed a device to prevent travel above 85 mph, and a Tesla technician in Dania Beach removed it without their consent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Attorneys representing Tesla denied both accusations and focused on Riley\u2019s driving record during that trial. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A jury ruled Riley was most responsible, so Tesla was only liable for $105,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In this most recent civil lawsuit, Monserratt Martinez\u2019s family claimed negligence by both Riley and Tesla, and that they were to blame for the tragedy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Monserratt Martinez and Riley were only about 18 days away from earning their high school diploma from Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale when they died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The judge and the attorneys in the case declined to disclose any details about the settlement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">All of those negotiations happened behind closed doors and that information was not presented to the jurors before they were dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0April 20, 2026 at 9:36 PM There was an abrupt ending on Monday to a lawsuit involving the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-239775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}