A University of Central Florida professor, who’d been on staff less than a year but already earned “rave reviews” from students, and his younger brother were killed this week after their car was broadsided by a suspected fentanyl trafficker.
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UCF’s Christopher Marier, 42, and his brother Tyler Marier, 40, were fatally injured in the Casselberry crash on Tuesday after their SUV was t-boned by a car driven by 26-year-old Marquavious Tayvon Wheaton, who was fleeing an attempted traffic stop in Sanford, according to the Casselberry Police Department.
The older brother was a former Florida police officer who’d gone on to study criminal justice. He was an assistant professor at UCF, hired last year.
“The brothers loved each other very much,” said a family member, who requested to remain anonymous. “Chris spent a good part of his life wanting to take care of his brother and guide his brother. Tyler was an extremely funny, caring person who loved his daughter, and anything good he did in his life was for her.”
Christopher Marier was the father of two sons, who hope their father will be remembered for his work, the family member added. Two other family members declined to comment.
The incident began Tuesday when Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputies attempted to pull over Wheaton around 11:50 a.m. in Sanford, but he kept driving and fled the area. The sheriff’s office sent up a helicopter to conduct aerial surveillance of Wheaton, but didn’t chase him on the street out of concern for drivers’ safety, the agency said in a news release.
A half-hour video from the police helicopter, released Wednesday, shows Wheaton’s black sedan weaving in and out of traffic erratically at high speeds, at times surpassing 100 miles per hour, according to the Casselberry Police Department.
As Wheaton headed south on U.S. Highway 17-92, the gray SUV carrying the brothers — it’s not clear who was driving — was going in the opposite direction and started a left turn across the southbound lanes onto Sunnytown Road. That’s when Wheaton’s car t-boned the brothers’ SUV.
Wheaton’s car rolled and partially erupted in flames before he was rescued by first responders, taken into custody and transported to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to Casselberry police. As of Thursday, Wheaton has been discharged from the hospital and arrested.
The brothers were pronounced dead at the scene.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Dr. Marier’s family, friends, students, colleagues, and all who knew him,” UCF wrote in an emailed statement. “Although his time at UCF was brief, Dr. Marier quickly became a valued member of our community.”
Gene Paoline, professor and chair of UCF’s department of criminal justice, hired Christopher Marier last year. The entire department — Marier’s “work family” — is grieving, he said.
Paoline described him as a creative teacher, who would often “flip the classroom” by having his students bring in presentations and teach. Doctoral students submitted “rave reviews” about their experience working with him, he said.
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“After reviewing his student evaluations after his first year, I was beyond struck, and I talked about all the positive feedback that I received right out of the gate,” Paoline said. “The students actually loved it.”
Paoline was working with Marier on a paper about police response and public perceptions of deadly force encounters. They were supposed to meet again this week. “He was just a joy to work with on that level,” he said.
Marier remained objective in his criminal justice research, Paoline added, approaching it “as a student, as a scholar” rather than a former member of law enforcement.
“He was just a really talented methodologist,” he said. “He was a careful thinker.”
Marier served with the North Port Police Department in Southwest Florida from 2007 to 2013, where he addressed the community “with professionalism, integrity, and dedication,” wrote Police Chief Todd Garrison in an emailed statement.
Before his time at UCF, Marier worked at Appalachian State University, where he met friend and colleague Daniel Baker on a Zoom interview.
“Once I was on campus, we became fast friends,” said Baker, a criminal justice assistant professor at the North Carolina university, where they worked on multiple projects together about how officers interact with communities and the mental and physical health effects of the job.
Marier moved back to Florida to be near his family, Baker said, and “it made sense for him, as the family man that he was, and it put him closer to the people that he thought about every day.”
Over the phone, they talked about everything from research to parenthood to bread recipes, he said, and those conversations illuminated how much of a rock Marier was to his family.
Baker, his wife and now 6-year-old son met Tyler Marier once, when they went on a hike in North Carolina with both brothers. The group trudged through creeks and cracked jokes all day, he said.
“I imagine that Chris and Tyler were in the same car because Chris was the big brother, and he was helping his brother out,” Baker said. “That would have been the reason they were traveling around together, was two brothers who were very close.”
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It is not clear from public records where Tyler Marier lived.