Description
Two families forever changed by two separate but eerily similar tragedies are now united in a fight to change Florida law — after a repeat offender was involved in deadly crashes that claimed the lives of two teenagers more than 20 years apart.
In May 2023, just days before Mother’s Day, Mandi and Robert Stewart were awakened by a knock on the door that changed their lives forever.
"It really started with a pounding at the door early in the morning," Mandi Stewart said. "I saw two police officers standing there. And of course, my worst fear—my heart immediately dropped."
Their only son, Trenton Stewart, had just returned home from college. The 18-year-old Stetson University football player was hit head-on by a wrong-way driver who had been going over 100 miles per hour on a Jacksonville road.
"This is his phone from that night. I had to double-bag it cause it's so destroyed...It just exemplifies how fast the offender was going," Mandi said, holding the shattered phone.
A room in their home now serves as a memorial filled with football gear, play sheets and even the drink he bought that morning.
"These were the gloves that he wore. These were his plays he still had in his bag that he was studying," Mandi Stewart said. "This was the last drink that he purchased that morning."
The man who killed Trenton, now in his 40s, is no stranger to deadly driving. In 2001, he crashed while drag racing in South Florida, killing 15-year-old Christina Ramos.