BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Keystone Heights man is facing charges, including DUI manslaughter, after a crash in June that claimed the life of his passenger, according to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol.
Investigators allege that William Russell Gatlin, III, then 37, was intoxicated while driving a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado on State Road 100 at approximately 2:37 a.m. on June 15. The passenger, 36-year-old Laryn Tabatha Bradley, who was the registered owner of the truck, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash occurred near the Starke city limit on the state highway, as the pickup was heading toward Keystone Heights.
According to an arrest report, which was corroborated by video surveillance from KLC Floors and More, a business located at the corner of the state highway and Starke’s L.M. Gaines Boulevard, Gatlin was traveling eastbound on State Road 100 when the truck veered onto the grass shoulder for over 250 feet. Gatlin then overcorrected, causing the vehicle to spin across both lanes of traffic before crashing into a ditch and striking several trees.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab in Jacksonville recovered an event recorder from the truck, which revealed that the pickup was traveling 57 mph in a 45-mph zone five seconds before the crash.
According to the arrest report, after the collision, Gatlin called his ex-girlfriend, telling her he had been in a “bad accident” and believed Bradley was dead. When law enforcement arrived, they found Bradley deceased in the passenger seat. Gatlin was located shortly after, lying face down in a ditch approximately 90 feet from the crash site.
Corporal M. Leroux wrote in the report that rescue personnel noted a “heavy” smell of alcohol coming from the wrecked truck. Gatlin admitted to drinking and told first responders he believed he was the driver. At UF Health Shands Hospital, investigators observed that Gatlin had slurred speech and bloodshot, watery eyes. A hospital blood test showed his blood alcohol concentration was .223, nearly three times the legal limit of .08 in Florida. A separate toxicology test by FDLE resulted in a blood alcohol concentration of .182.
Leroux wrote that during an interview at the hospital, Gatlin said he knew his blood alcohol concentration was over the legal limit when he got into the truck.
“Defendant was remorseful throughout the interview and advised he wished it would have been him,” the investigator wrote.
Video surveillance from the Whiskey River Saloon in Starke confirmed that Gatlin and Bradley were there shortly before the crash. The video shows Gatlin getting into the driver’s side of the truck before it pulls away. Investigators also noted he left without paying his bar tab, which listed several alcoholic drinks.
While the FHP report refers to the victim as Laryn Tabatha Bradley, an obituary and a roadside memorial across State Road 100 from the Bradford ARC call her Laryn Tabatha McNeill.
The 35-year-old Interlachen woman had six children, and her family said in an obituary that her life revolved around them.
The FDLE lab reported that a mixed DNA profile from the truck’s steering wheel was approximately 610,000 times more likely to have come from Gatlin and two other individuals than from three unrelated people.
The FHP arrest report concludes that Gatlin’s impairment made him unable to operate a vehicle safely and that he is “solely responsible for the death of Laryn Tabatha Bradley.”
At the time of the crash, the defendant’s driver’s license was suspended, and he had previous convictions for DUI and driving with a suspended license.
