A Morriston woman has been charged with DUI manslaughter a year after a man died in a head-on crash on Southeast Hawthorne Road.
Cassandra Lee Carlson, 40, was arrested Saturday, according to a sworn complaint.
Cory Scott Richardson, 23, of Interlachen, was pronounced dead at the scene after the crash just outside of Hawthorne at about 1 a.m. Sept. 24, 2017, the complaint said. His car was found upside down. An autopsy report later determined that he had not been drinking.
A Budweiser bottle was found in Carlson’s car, the complaint said. She was taken to the hospital, and officials said she had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol.
She later told authorities that she didn’t remember the crash, the complaint said. She remembered leaving work from a solar farm in Hawthorne to go home between 4:30 and 5 p.m. before pulling over on the side of the road to drink three beers. She told authorities she fell asleep in her car, woke up and kept driving home. A blood test revealed that she was over the legal driving limit.
She is in the Alachua County Jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond, according to court records.
The parents of Richardson, Nancy and Mark Richardson, filed a suit against Carlson for damages, records state.
