BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
STARKE— A judge sentenced a Marion County woman to three-and-a-half years in prison after she pleaded to DUI with serious bodily injury.
After her silver Hyundai hit a culvert east of Starke on Brownlee Road, Kenyatta Kiera Wilson told police she fell asleep at the wheel and woke up, realizing she had been in a crash. She told police that one of her two passengers was moaning in the back seat while the other was on the ground behind her vehicle.
She said she tried to drag the ejected passenger back toward her car but couldn’t, and after failing to flag down another motorist, she spotted a Starke police officer in the driveway of St. Matthews Church. Wilson told the officer the crash occurred around 15 minutes before she found police; however, based on the vehicle’s engine temperature, officers determined the accident happened at least one hour prior.
The defendant told police she and her two passengers went to a Jacksonville bar on the evening of April 10, 2022, and then stopped at a Waffle House before driving toward Starke. Wilson added that she called a friend to stay awake but that during the call, her friend fell asleep. She then fell asleep and woke up after the crash.
In a sworn complaint, police said Wilson left the roadway around 4:34 a.m. and hit a culvert. Her Hyundai flipped end-over-end four times, ejecting one passenger before coming to rest 200 feet from the original point of impact. All three occupants were transported to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, and a blood test on Wilson revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.15%, nearly double the legal limit of 0.08%.
