Polk County DUI Attorney Blog

A Polk County court has sentenced a woman to ten years behind bars resulting from her involvement with a DUI crash in 2007. The State accused the defendant, 29-year old Jennifer Oatman, of making an illegal turn at a red light and crashing into another vehicle on September 14, 2007. Oatman tried to flee the scene, but the authorities caught up to her. She possessed a blood alcohol content of .186, over double the Florida legal limit for alcohol consumption of .08.

The victim and other driver involved in the crash, Tijuana Jordan, was in her final trimester of pregnancy. Doctors were forced to perform an emergency C-section of the baby after the accident. The baby, Isaiah, died within days of his traumatic birth. An autopsy determined the cause of death of baby Isaiah to be blunt force trauma from the accident.

A Polk County driver faces DUI manslaughter charges after hitting a member of a roadside construction crew in the wee hours of October 19, 2006. The driver of a white BMW, Elias Sota, lost control of his vehicle and slammed into a worksite installing traffic signals. Sota hit a young man, 18-year old Michael Gunter, while unpacking a trailer. He suffered from two broken legs and severe internal bleeding.

Gunter died months later as a result of his injuries. This week Sota will head to trial to face charges of DUI manslaughter, manslaughter by culpable negligence and two counts of DUI stemming from the 2006 crash. However, the defendant's blood alcohol content registered below the Florida legal limit of .08 at .051 and .055, at the time of arrest.