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Car salesman with dreams of music dies in crash

A drunken driver sails through a red light and into a turning car, killing a man and injuring his companion, investigators say ; th at driver is in jail.

By MICHAEL A. MOHAMMED
Published November 3, 2006

BRANDON - Wednesday morning, 29-year-old Glen Michael Laurent walked into the Brandon Mitsubishi dealership with a smile on his face. After working there for only a year, he had become one of the most successful salesmen there.

He was also dating Nuvia Zamora, a woman friends said he thought might be "the one," even though he had just met her seven days before.

That night, they had spaghetti and coffee at Zamora's house and then left so Laurent could feed his husky/German shepherd mix, Don Juan. They set off for Laurent's home in Wimauma about 7:15 p.m.

As Laurent turned left from Causeway Boulevard onto U.S. 301, Joanna Lynn Kinchen's Mercury Sable ran a red light and smashed into the driver's side of Laurent's Acura Integra.

"All I remember are the lights coming toward us, and Michael yelling, 'No!' " Zamora said.

Kinchen, Laurent and Zamora were taken to Tampa General Hospital. Laurent died about an hour later. Kinchen had a few scrapes and bruises, and Zamora's wrist was broken.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested Kinchen, 27, at the hospital. Officials said a blood test showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the level at which Florida law considers a driver impaired.

She has been charged with vehicular homicide, reckless driving with serious bodily injury, DUI manslaughter and DUI with serious bodily injury. She is being held without bail at the Falkenburg Road Jail.

Laurent had been "one of the top three salesmen on the sales force," said Brandon Mitsubishi owner Frank Delvecchio.

Laurent played the guitar, keyboard and drums, and hoped someday to become a musician or producer, said Bart Creamer, a co-worker.

"He was a bohemian type of person," Creamer added. "He was born a little late. ... He would have been perfect in the '60s."

"This is a cutthroat business," Creamer said, but "Glen ... was there for everybody."

He came to Florida about two years ago, said Laurent's father, Bill Laurent, to be closer to his parents in Sun City Center.

"He was the best listener I've ever known," Bill Laurent said. "I'm his father, but he was my mentor."

Glen Michael Laurent had met Zamora on Oct. 25 while waiting for a prescription at the Kmart she managed.

"He has the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen," Zamora said Thursday. "They're sometimes green, sometimes blue."

Laurent gave her his card, and she stopped by the dealership later that day to give him her number. Just three days later, he introduced her to his parents.

"He loved his parents, he loved his dog, and I was pretty sure he loved me," Zamora said.

Kinchen, of E 7505 23rd Ave. in East Tampa, had been working as a waitress at Beef O'Brady's on Kings Avenue and has a 3-year-old son, according to her aunt.

While she had not previously been arrested for DUI, her driving record includes three speeding tickets.

Laurent's father painfully recalled a warning his son gave him soon after starting his job at the dealership.

"He had been warning us about the drunken drivers around where he lived, and to be careful," Bill Laurent said.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 06:08:09]