Oldsmar man, 19, charged in traffic fatality

LARGO - Charles R. Pennington didn't know quite how to feel when he got a call Thursday morning informing him that a 19-year-old Oldsmar man had been charged with vehicular homicide in the death of Pennington's 85-year-old mother.

"It's kind of a mixed emotions type thing," said Pennington, 63, of Sumterville. "I feel terribly upset at the death of my mom. And I think about all the people whose lives he has involved over one bad mistake."

Jason Michael Dunn of 1813 Elmwood Drive was charged nearly a month after the Nov. 11 accident on Missouri Avenue near Jasper Street. Police say Dunn was seen weaving in and out of traffic, ran a red light and was speeding when his pickup collided with a Buick driven by Marie Pennington. "I don't hold any hostilities against him," Charles Pennington said. "Still, I definitely want to see justice done.

"I feel sorry for his mother," Pennington said. "I can imagine what she's going through. Now it's up to the courts to decide."

A homemaker for most of her life, Mrs. Pennington moved to Clearwater in 1985 and into a place at the Shangri-La Mobile Home Park on Jasper Street.

She liked games and puzzles and talked to her son, her only child, every day. She had four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, Pennington said. She also had three sisters and a brother.

Dunn was being held in the Pinellas County Jail on Thursday in lieu of $20,000 bail.

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