JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Nassau County father has been taken into Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office custody for the death of his 8-month-old baby, who was ejected from a car during a crash in 2023.

Lenford Killings, 36, of Callahan, was arrested last week on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, reckless driving causing damage to a person or property, and DUI causing damage. The charges stem from a crash on Dec. 10, 2023.

Killings is accused of drinking alcohol, being under the influence of THC, and driving 120 miles per hour, causing the crash, according to a warrant for his arrest.

The crash happened on I-295 just south of Merrill Road. The arrest warrant says it was a single-vehicle crash. Killings was the driver, with a female passenger and three children inside the car. The warrant states the 8-month-old was “unrestrained” in the vehicle, while the two other children were in the back seat.

Killings was driving erratically at an “extremely high rate of speed,” later identified as over 120 miles per hour, the warrant says. The car went off the roadway, hit a guardrail, overturned, and collided with multiple palm trees before ending up on its roof.

The baby was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene.

The warrant also notes that Killings had bloodshot, watery eyes and smelled of alcohol. An FHP investigator wrote that Killings’ child told him the parents were drinking: “Daddy was driving and dancing and the car kept crashing.”

Killings admitted to police that he and the woman were drinking while driving and looking at Christmas lights, according to FHP.

During subsequent interviews, he claimed the woman “must have drugged him.” However, toxicology tests revealed only THC and alcohol in his system.

The arresting officer wrote that on Jan. 22, 2024, he received a lab report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showing Killings’ blood alcohol concentration was .197%—more than 2.4 times the legal limit.

On Feb. 27, 2025, additional lab results confirmed that DNA swabs taken from Killings matched DNA on the vehicle’s steering wheel airbag.

The warrant was issued June 23, 2025. Last week, Killings was taken into custody in Nassau County and has since been transferred to the Duval County Jail.