LARGO - A woman who struck and killed an 81-year-old man while police say she was driving under the influence of alcohol pleaded guilty Wednesday to a DUI-manslaughter charge.
Jennifer Lee Butler, 27, faces 10 to 15 years in prison when she is sentenced Sept. 24 by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Phil Federico. Butler's plea was an open one, which means she received no guarantee from the judge or prosecutors about her sentence.
But the family of the man she struck and killed last year, James T. "Jimmy" Hitchcock, has indicated to prosecutors that they would agree to a substantial departure below the minimum of 10 years if they are paid $12,517 in restitution.
Butler's attorney, John Trevena, said his client expects to be able to pay the restitution by the sentencing.
The final word on a sentence, however, is still in Federico's hands.
Police said Butler was driving a 1998 Honda south on Keene Road in Largo on Aug. 21 just after 8 p.m. near the intersection of East Bay Drive when she struck Hitchcock, who was walking across Keene pushing a shopping cart full of groceries.
Hitchcock hit the car's windshield, a police report said, and landed near the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at 10:58 p.m.
Blood drawn from Butler after the crash showed that she had blood-alcohol levels of 0.194 and 0.196, both of which are more than twice the limit at which Florida law presumes a motorist is too impaired to drive safely.
Butler later told police she thought she had hit a shopping cart, so she kept going. She turned around and went back to the crash site after another motorist told her she had hit someone, a police report says.
Officers who spoke with Butler noticed the smell of alcohol on her breath, reports say. She did poorly on field sobriety tests, but she was not arrested that night.
On Jan. 7, a warrant for her arrest was issued after Largo police completed an investigation. Butler lived in Largo at the time of the incident and now resides in Staten Island, N.Y.
Hitchcock was a Navy veteran of World War II and had worked as a welder in naval shipyards in San Francisco and Norfolk, Va. In Florida, he had worked for the Belleair Country Club.
He was survived by his wife of 62 years, a daughter and a granddaughter.
