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Driver gets nine years for fatal crash

Regina W. Serrago, of Cape Coral, received the minimum sentence for a 2000 crash that killed a St. Petersburg man.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published July 5, 2005

LARGO - A Cape Coral woman was sentenced to just over nine years in prison last week after she was convicted of vehicular homicide for a 2000 crash that killed a St. Petersburg man.

A jury took just over an hour to convict Regina W. Serrago, 46, of vehicular homicide after a three-day trial last week. However, jurors acquitted her of charges of DUI-manslaughter and DUI with serious injury, prosecutor Jan Olney said.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Doug Baird sentenced Serrago to the minimum sentence for the crime. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison, Olney said.

Authorities said Serrago was under the influence of cocaine June 27, 2000, when she veered a Ford Mustang across the median and into the northbound lanes on Interstate 275 between Roosevelt and Gandy boulevards.

There, it ran head on into a 2000 Buick driven by Ruth Huldtquist, 75, of Seminole. A passenger in the Buick, John Cleveland Presley, 78, died later at Bayfront Medical Center.

Two other cars were hit. Serrago and four other people also were injured.

Olney said cocaine was found in Serrago's blood, but jurors may not have believed it was enough to impair her ability to drive. However, Serrago also had been driving quite recklessly. Witnesses said she was going up to 85 mph at a time when the speed limit was 55 mph. She also weaving in traffic and passing cars on the shoulder, Olney said.

The case took so long to reach trial because a judge at one time suppressed the evidence received in the blood test. However, an appeals court reversed that decision and the case headed for trial, Olney said.

[Last modified July 5, 2005, 17:57:15]