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Former fiancée of frequent impaired driver shares harrowing story of addiction

We are hearing from the (now former) fiancée of Blake Nichols Grady, the man charged with hitting and killing a cyclist and injuring a deputy Sunday while he was on drugs.

Posted Updated

By
Sarah Krueger
, WRAL Senior Durham reporter
DURHAM, N.C. — The former fiancée of Blake Nichols Grady, the man charged with hitting and killing a cyclist and injuring a deputy Sunday while he was on drugs, tells WRAL News that Grady struggled with drugs and toiled with his dependency.
Alexis Candelaria, the former fiancée and mother of Grady's 5-month-old son, wanted to speak out to highlight how addiction can tear families apart and have deadly consequences.
"I knew that he knew that he would end up either killing himself, or killing somebody," Candelaria said of Grady.
Candelaria's interview was heartbreaking. She talked about his many incidents of overdoses and drug abuse. She said just one week before killing 61-year-old cyclist Cheryl LaRobardier, he overdosed at a gas station.
"I feel so bad for that woman and her family," Candelaria said.

In October, she said Grady hit someone who was changing a tire on Interstate 540.

In August, he crashed, and he did in May 2020, as well.

"This is what addiction does, and this is what addiction did to us and our family, and another family's life," Candelaria said.

The day Grady left and ended up in the deadly crash, she tried to stop him from leaving, even standing in front of his car in their driveway.

Earlier, WRAL News reported that Grady has two prior DWIs. She said there were countless other times he was driving impaired and didn't get caught, and even some instances where he did crash, but for some reason never got charged with DWI.

In court this week, a prosecutor told the judge Grady admitted to using meth, heroin and marijuana that day. A nearby deputy saw the hit and run and started chasing Grady, who ultimately crashed his car, jumped out and wrestled with deputies before being arrested.
Candelaria believes his story is also an example of systemic failure to help addicts. She said despite his extensive drug abuse and record, he never was mandated to do any kind of drug treatment program, and never got any significant time behind bars (other than about a year and a half for larcenies).

Grady's criminal record shows 41 prior convictions, including those two prior DWI convictions.

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