The man charged in the crash that killed a University of Central Florida professor and his brother is a convicted felon and suspected drug dealer who was under surveillance by investigators who had spotted a BMW he rented with windows that look illegally tinted and hoped to pull him over.
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But before they had the chance on July 7, the black car was flying down a highway at more than 100 miles per hour, court records show. About 15 minutes later, the BMW crashed into the brothers’ car. Both men were declared dead at the scene.
After the crash, Marquaious Wheaton, 26, was arrested on a long list of charges, including two counts of third-degree murder and two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of UCF professor Christopher Marier, 42, and his brother Tyler Marier, 40. Wheaton was denied bond at a hearing Friday.
Wheaton was well known to law enforcement. He was already on probation for a 2019 armed robbery conviction, and had been arrested in 2023 on a charge of trafficking fentanyl and in 2025 for possession of cocaine. Prosecutors declined to file charges in the latter two cases, however, according to court records.
On a day prior to the accident, though the records don’t say when, a Seminole County sheriff’s deputy spotted a black BMW 5-Series sedan with windows that looked too darkly tinted, identified Wheaton as the man who’d rented it and noted his past fentanyl trafficking arrest. Agents with the Seminole Collaborative Opioid Response Effort then began surveilling the vehicle, records show, though they do not say for how long he was watched.
Those agents with the opioid unit were watching the BMW on July 7 based on prior investigative history, not because of any specific narcotics activity observed that day, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said Monday.
Agents followed the BMW onto State Road 417 as a sheriff’s office helicopter arrived to assist, but could not catch up with the vehicle to conduct a traffic stop for its tinted windows, however, because it was traveling so fast, according to the affidavit for Wheaton’s arrest.
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A deputy eventually attempted to pull the BMW over around 11:50 a.m. in the Sanford area, but it sped away and the sheriff’s office said it stopped its pursuit out of concern for other motorists, per its policy. The helicopter continued following the vehicle, the affidavit said.
A half-hour video from the police helicopter, released Wednesday, shows Wheaton’s BMW weaving in and out of traffic erratically at high speeds, running read lights, driving on the wrong side of the road and at times surpassing 100 miles per hour, according to the affidavit.
As Wheaton headed south on U.S. Highway 17-92, the brown Mazda carrying the Mariers 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 them.
Wheaton’s car rolled onto its roof 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. He was later discharged from the hospital and arrested.
He remains in custody at the Seminole County Jail. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 25.
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