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The Villages
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Ocala woman caught grinning in jail mugshot faces September trial for DUI manslaughter

 An Ocala woman whose smiling jail mugshot went viral after a three-vehicle crash resulted in the death of a Sarasota woman last month will go on trial in September.

Angenette Marie Welk, 44, is facing charges of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and two counts of DUI property damage in connection with a May 10 crash at the intersection of NW 60th Avenue and U.S. Hwy. 27 in Ocala that resulted in the death of 60-year-old Sandra Clarkston.

Angenette Marie Welk in her Marion County Jail booking photos from May 10 and May 19.

Welk, who married 46-year-old Eric John Missett seven days after the crash, is scheduled for a Sept. 13 pretrial conference followed by jury selection 11 days later.

Welk was originally taken into custody after her 2011 Chevrolet Avalanche slammed into the back of a 2017 Hyundai Elantra driven by 18-year-old Shiyanne Kroll, of Seattle. The impact pushed the front of Kroll’s car partially underneath a horse trailer that was being pulled by a 2016 Freightliner semi-truck driven by 65-year-old Kevin McMinn, of Ocala, who wasn’t injured.

Kroll and her passenger, Clarkston, were transported to Ocala Regional Medical Center. Kroll was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Clarkston, who turned 60 the day before the crash, died four days later at the hospital.

At the crash scene, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper noticed that Welk had glossy eyes, slow, slurred and mumbled speech, lethargic movements, Gait Ataxia (lack of voluntary muscle movements) and a moderate odor of alcohol on her breath, a report says. She failed sobriety tests and after being transported to the Marion County Jail provided two breath samples showing .172 and .165 blood alcohol content – both twice the legal limit of .08 in Florida.

Welk, who remains free after posting $40,000 bond, caught the attention of websites, television stations and newspapers across the globe when her initial booking photo at the Marion County Jail showed her grinning with her head tilted to one side. After a more solemn-looking photo was taken when she was re-arrested on the DUI manslaughter charge, her attorney quickly came to her defense.

Stacy Youmans, of Blanchard, Merriam, Adel & Kirkland, said her client is a “a good-hearted person, a wife, mother and friend who is devastated by what happened.” She added that Welk’s “heart breaks for the Clarkston family.”

Youmans, a Florida native and former prosecutor, has extensive courtroom experience. Her name is probably familiar to Villagers, as she’s also representing Brice Hall, of Weirsdale, who is facing a manslaughter charge in the death of McCall’s Tavern employee Austin Stevens in June 2016.

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