DDN – A Plant City woman is facing criminal charges in connection with a wrong-way incident that killed another driver on the Selmon Expressway last month.
Sarah Beverly Downing, 40, was arrested on December 30 and charged with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. According to court documents, Downing is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol when he crashed on December 7 and killed Ricardo Tishane Laird, 33, of Orlando.
According to an arrest affidavit, the incident occurred soon before 3 a.m. while Downing was driving a Honda Fit west in the expressway’s eastbound lanes. Downing collided with Laird in a Toyota Yaris just east of the Hyde Park Avenue exit.
There were no passengers in either vehicle.
Laird was pronounced deceased by paramedics at the site. Downing was dragged unconscious from the driver’s seat of the Honda and transported to Tampa General Hospital, where Florida Highway Patrol agents seized her blood samples and medical records.
According to the affidavit, her blood alcohol level was.219 approximately an hour after the incident. Under Florida law, a driver is presumed intoxicated if his or her blood alcohol level is.08.
The blood samples were delivered to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis. Investigators secured a warrant for Downing’s arrest while the results were still pending.
According to the motion, a friend who was interviewed by an investigator on Jan. 2 stated that she was drinking with Downing at two different bars on the night of the collision, and that Downing had a Long Island Iced Tea before leaving the second bar around 2 a.m.
Prosecutors claimed in the motion that Downing has two past DUI convictions, from 2009 and 2011, and that she is a risk to the community and should be held without bond. Judge J. Logan Murphy approved the request during a hearing on January 6.
Downing will be arraigned on Thursday. According to court records, she is represented by a public defender.
Laird relocated to Florida from Jamaica with his wife and little daughter months before the incident, according to his obituary and a GoFundMe page set up to help his family. He was an HVAC technician who was establishing his own business and enjoyed DJing.
Following Downing’s arrest, prosecutors filed a motion to hold her in custody until her case was completed.
Reference: Woman faces DUI, homicide charges in fatal wrong-way crash on Selmon Expressway
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